The Dictionary of Human Geography

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and Smith sees these cities as ‘a focal point

for social, economic and ritualnetworks

sustained and invested in by the hundreds

and thousands of people who lived in them’

so that the result was ‘the product of nego-

tiation, compromise and consensus among

many different individuals and groups.’ dg

Suggested reading

Gates (2003, pp. 29–119); Smith (2003b);

Yoffee (2005).

urban renewal A term referring to a range

of strategies aimed at reshaping urbanland-

scapesand remedying social and economic

problems associated with run-downinner-

city neighbourhoods. These strategies, gen-

erally promoted bystateactors and business

interests, are frequently questioned and/or dir-

ectly opposed by residents of central-city

neighbourhoods. Nevertheless, they generally

result in massive landscape change and the

displacement of large numbers of existing resi-

dents. Debate around urban renewal tends to

focus on the interests that drive it, the specific

strategies employed to achieve it, and the

impacts of renewal strategies on targeted

neighbourhoods and their residents.

Urban renewal has a long history, with ante-

cedents in the Haussmannization of Paris

in the 1850s and 1860s, for instance. Yet, it

generally refers to massivestate-led building

projects in the wake of the Second World War

in Europe and in North America. The first

phase of postwar urban renewal, in the 1950s

and 1960s, was characterized by massive

public works projects that razed established

neighbourhoods in favour of new commercial

districts, housing projects and highways in

the name ofmodernization(Berman, 1983).

These projects were conceived and driven by

powerful state bureaucracies and, in some

cases, by powerful individuals such as New

York’s Robert Moses. Bureaucrats wielded

their power not merely to address self-evident

urban problems but to actually constitute

specific neighbourhoods, and by extension,

certain people and ways of life, as problems

to be remedied. Narrow definitions of ‘blight’

were central to the identification of areas in

need of renewal; a fact that highlights the often

problematic combination ofpower,discourse

andspacein urban renewal (Weber, 2002).

Growing criticism of these strategies – the

negative impacts of which largely fell on the

poor and racial minorities who were forcibly

displaced – led, by the 1970s, to a wider set of

renewal policies. These new approaches

responded to critiques, levelled by people such

as Jane Jacobs (1992 [1961]), of the high-

handedness of planners and the deadened

nature of the new spaces they produced.

In the next three decades, individual urban

renewal projects have been marked by com-

binations of strategies, the relative weight of

each being governed by the specific context in

which each project is operationalized. Massive

state-led redevelopment projects continue in

some contexts while, in others, the refurbish-

ment and preservation of older neighbourhoods,

often with the involvement of neighbours in

localized, participatory planning processes,

has emerged as an important approach.

These strategies have been accompanied by

the emergence ofpublic__private partnerships

as a business-oriented, often property-led

strategy, which still dominates a great deal

of urban renewal and is exemplified by large-

scale urban developments across Europe

(Moulaert, Rodriguez and Swyngedouw, 2003).

Contemporary studies emphasize the role

that the arts,tourism, mega-events (such as

the Olympic Games) andgentrificationplay

in urban renewal and the uneven benefits that

stem from these strategies. Others highlight

alternatives to dominant public–private

approaches, involving various forms of com-

munity development – from co-operative own-

ership models for housing to alternative

methods of investing in inner-citycommuni-

ties– all of which indicate the ongoing tension

and struggle that accompanies attempts to

define problem areas in cities or to formulate

and implement equitable solutions to those

problems. em

Suggested reading

Berman (1988); Moulaert, Rodriguez and Swyn-

gedouw (2003).

urban social movement Collective action

based on grievances that originate or are phys-

ically manifest in urban areas, such as a lack of

public services, in which thestateis the

primary target foractivism. A debate in the

1980s focused on whether there were distinct-

ivelyurbansocial movements, and whether

these were necessarily progressive in their

goals (Fincher, 1987). Castells (1983) argued

that urban social movements were, more so

than other social movements, oriented to

grievances aroundcollective consumption,

rather than around class. Yet other scholars

pointed out that some urban social move-

ments address conflicts in the sphere of pro-

duction (Fincher, 1987).

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_U Final Proof page 790 31.3.2009 9:34pm

URBAN RENEWAL