Neighbourhoods

Up on the farm

If you've ever been in a flat in a tower block and wondered sadly about damp carpets or mould on the walls, did it occur to you that the agricultural potential was just waiting to be developed?

'A vertical farm is a multi-storey building in which a wide variety of crops is grown, enough to feed up to 50,000 people. Moreover, the farm is operated in an environmentally-friendly fashion: it is powered by sustainable energy sources and recycles both solid and liquid waste.'

Give it time - they're only in the early stages of research. But I quite like the idea of getting in the lift and reading the 'pick your own' options for various floors...

Summary here on the European Urban Knowledge Network.

Children and local social networks

Children are active - both indirectly and directly - in forging neighbourly relationships and connections for their parents. You know that, I know that, and now there's some ESRC research to back it up.

The findings are from a three-year study involving some 600 children and 80 parents in five contrasting areas - two inner London boroughs, an outer London suburb, a new town in the South East of England, and a city in the Midlands. During the study, the researchers examined children's experiences of travelling to school and to a wide range of activities outside the home - from formal clubs to hanging out in the park.

They found that the more parents were involved in the lives of their neighbours, the more freedom they gave their children. At the same time, the more social networks children have in a neighbourhood, the greater parents' confidence in the safety of that area.

The research also suggests that when parents allow their children to roam, their classmate's parents draw from that confidence. This in turn impacts upon their classmates' freedom of action.

Community engagement and the public realm

Living Streets are running a conference on 'Community engagement and the public realm,'
Wednesday 4 July 2007, London.

The challenge for local authorities is to find ways to engage their communities in service provision – particularly streets and the public realm. This conference will set out the new requirements on community engagement, and how this will affect the way public space is designed and managed. It will hear about some of the new tools which are being used to engage residents. It will look at innovative ways to ensure that it’s not just ‘the same voices’ which are being heard. And finally, it will showcase some of the best examples of community engagement from around the UK.

Judging by the cost, it's just aimed at professionals, reducing the chance of getting a real mix of people. Details.

Segregation in public space

I'm always interested in medium size towns and what you can learn from the ways people occupy their spaces. Now here's a new JRF report on Social interactions in urban public places based on observed interactions between people of different ages across one year in Aylesbury, in southern England. The spaces included shopping malls, green open spaces, and local centres in residential areas.

As we would expect, there were clear differences in use by age groups, with distinct timetabling of use:

older adults were present in the town centre mainly in the mornings and early afternoon, but strikingly absent almost everywhere by evening.

The researchers found little interaction between generations, particularly between strangers, and 'a distinct separation' between the public lives of younger and older people.

I won't be the only one pointing out that the title is misleading, as it doesn't seem to be about social interactions. But aside from that, it's valuable to have research to back up widespread concerns about segregational effects in public space, and the importance of self-regulation as a source of public order.

This study emphasises the essential tension in public spaces between the need to 'live and let live', and the need to manage and regulate. Successful management needs to involve constant negotiation between the extremes of over-regulation and laissez-faire approaches. Public education, information and involvement are essential to this process. The research suggests the need for some gradation of security, drawing on community support and harnessing the general inclination of people to self-regulate to avoid conflict.

So this is a contribution to the ongoing debate about regulation and behaviour in the public realm, recognising people's natural inclinations towards informal co-operation and co-existence.

Many people were deterred by the stark newness of 'cleaned up' spaces devoid of features and activity, and these spaces drew in 'alternative' uses to those intended. Residents, designers and planners have a particular vision of new developments that does not necessarily accommodate the full diversity of everyday life in towns. It is important to question why particular unplanned activities should be seen as unacceptable when they are conducted in spaces that are rarely used as they were intended.

Findings. Report.

Meanwhile, if we really want to see segregation in public space, we could all get on the buses in Jerusalem. Given the potent history of segregation on buses, you'd think they'd have some sense of irony.

Smile and be counted

Last week the Guardian published a short article by Peter Singer, about a city-funded initiative in Port Phillip near Melbourne, where volunteers monitor the number of smiles between passers-by in the street. Signs are then placed to let pedestrians know when they are in, for instance, a 10 smiles per hour zone. Coupled with investment in street parties, this is all

'part of a larger programme attempting to measure changes in quality of life... The council wants Port Phillip to be a sustainable community, not merely in an environmental sense but also in terms of social equity, economic viability and cultural vitality.'

You'd think from reading some of the comments the article has solicited, that government was taking over responsibility for the control of facial muscles. It's not about 'state-enforced smiles' although of course it is inevitably part of the debate on the extent of the changing role of the state:

'The Port Phillip city government ... wants those who live in the community after the present generation have gone to have the same opportunities for a good quality of life. To protect that quality of life, it has to be able to measure all the varied aspects that contribute to it, and friendliness is one of them.'

Quite right and about time too: quality of life is not just about services and money, there's a debate about social capital been going on out there. In an age of high mobility, the perceived friendliness of a locality and anticipations of civility among strangers are related to all sorts of factors from the perception of individual safety to the potential for local economic stability. (On another theme, in theory it raises again the question of the desirability of using religious or other costume in order to hide the face; and the implications for our experience of the public realm).

It would be a mistake to see the Port Phillips 'smile in the street' exercise as an isolated initiative, and Singer makes clear that other activities such as the organisation of street parties belong in the same programme. A propos, Streets Alive's Chris Gittins sent me this comment:

'Smiling sounds easy but if you are strangers as neighbours where do you start? Well, a neighbours' street party is a good idea. Having met at least once over a BBQ people are more comfortable about smiling in the first place. This sort of Aussie politics is very welcome as UK politics is mostly about problem solving and not generating goodwill or prevention.'

One final thought: how long before a local authority in the UK tries something similar, and uses CCTV cameras instead of human beings, for the counting exercise?

Off yer bike

I just caught up with the Neighbors Project blog in Chicago (thanks to Kit Hodge for a generous compliment there) and I quite like this idea: lock your bike in front of your house.

Nick made a conscious decision to begin locking his Schwinn cruiser commuting bike on a pole in front of his house overnight a while back. He's been leaving it out through the horrible Chicago winter and even when he's on vacation. He thought that it would help create more of a sense of street life and safety if his bike was always on the street, except when in use. I think he's right. When you can leave your bike or stroller out in your front area, whether it be on your porch or in your yard or on the sidewalk, your neighborhood seems safer and friendlier to everyone.

Leaving the theft and vandalism issues to one side, cynics might dismiss the authenticity of the effect, but the point is that such tiny unconscious indicators that the neighbourhood is occupied can make a huge difference.

It's not quite the same as the practice of bringing in the wheelie-bins or making sure your neighbour's post is pushed through the letter-slot: worthy and justified as these measures are, they are based on a combination of necessity and distrust, the determination not to emit signals of absence. Of course, it's a pity we have to talk about locking the bike, but it is a more proactive gesture.

Close half an eye, look at the picture, and imagine horses tied there... More ideas along these lines please. [And, doh, I've just understood why Kit describes my style as 'fairly conceptual'...]

We are failing

I read that Dorothy Evans, the elderly woman labelled as 'the original neighbour from hell' and whose anti-social behaviour has eventually resulted in a prison sentence, is likely to be kept in the hospital wing of the prison because of her medical problems.

Neither this, nor the mischievous suggestion that pensioners are better off in prison, should distract us from the point that a society which finds it necessary to imprison an 81-year old woman is failing grotesquely. It's reassuring to learn that the neighbour who was victimised has said she is not happy about the prison sentence. In a perverse sort of way, it's also relieving to have the limelight moved away from young people for a bit.

Neighbour abuse and harassment can be devastating, and it's right that there should be public recognition of it rather than routine dismissal or weak repeated efforts at intervention. Evans 'had failed to cooperate with probation services' and surely it's there or earlier that our efforts should be more concentrated? Cases like this should be like workshop scenarios, not protracted tragedies with grim sequels. Now could we perhaps see some urgency given to a mature and realistic debate about civilised ways of dealing with incivility, closer to its roots?

Cohesion, immigration, and policy

Immigration minister Liam Byrne got headlines yesterday for his proposed new "managed migration" points system, and says that when one junior school in his constituency saw its population of children with English as a second language rise from 5% to 20% within a year, 'the task of boosting standards in some of the poorest communities gets harder.'

And so the practicalities of promoting cohesion, when diversity implies low social capital and instability, bring a keen focus to immigration policy. Byrne points to the speed of population change in some localities and notes:

'Here are a set of changes that have made Britain richer but which have deeply unsettled the country.'

Well good, at least we have some acknowledgement that diversity brings richness. But the notion of diversity in neighbourhoods seems to be readily equated with 'problem'. How can that be? Apparently 'laissez-faire migration' runs the risk of damaging communities. (Not half as much as laissez faire consumerism, I'm thinking).

Being surrounded with a mix of people from different backgrounds creates tensions at local level apparently. (Er, excuse me, not necessarily it doesn't). So we must only admit to our country the people who will make an identifiable economic contribution. (Er, there may be a bit missing from the sequence of this argument). If they say it often enough, to some people it will begin to sound true. To many it probably already does.

It's just possible that there could be other causes of tensions in neighbourhoods. Byrne's approach suggests another clash of government policies, with CLG in various ways (including through the Commission) rightly and consistently stimulating ways in which 'people from different backgrounds can get on well together,' through community cohesion measures, 'liveability' policies, civil renewal, community engagement, local governance and so on. Why would immigration policy makers claim to have the answer without reference to other measures where people are working collectively on these issues? Unless there's an election coming up and some right-wing votes to be lost.

Meanwhile, in what looks like a premeditated subversion of Byrne's theme, from last friday's Guardian comes Robina Qureshi's tale of how 'the arrival of asylum seekers in Glasgow's most deprived areas has given back a sense of community in a way no government initiative has ever done.' How so? Well, as most community workers know, nothing succeeds like adversity:

'Immigration snatch squads, escorted by police, have conducted a series of dawn raids on Scottish asylum families over the past few years. Finally, last October, local people gathered alongside asylum seekers early one morning in Kingsway in peaceful protest at the raids. At around 6.30am an immigration snatch squad turned up to take another family. Over 150 members of the community linked arms and demanded the squad cease immediately. After a 40-minute standoff, the chief of police announced there would be no raid. To this day, the community has been on constant vigil in the hours before dawn.'

And finally, on this theme, a huge round of applause for the Welcome to Your Library project, which 'connects public libraries with refugee communities,' and has won this year's 'Libraries Change Lives' Award. I've been a fan from the start and as a former judge for this award I know how well deserved it is.

Neighbourhood cohesion - forum

The Commission on Integration and Cohesion has opened a month-long discussion forum, with the question:

"If you were in charge for a day, what would you do to help people from different backgrounds in your neighbourhood get on better?"

Children's contentedness as a social indicator

Absorbing Analysis programme on BBC R4 by Andrew Brown this evening about 'Miserable children'. 'Something rather horrible does seem to be happening to childhood in Britain today' says Brown, following up on that Unicef report.

The programme includes much wisdom from Penelope Leach, Richard Layard, Hugh Cunningham and others; including Layard's reflections on the research finding (which I covered here) that just 43% of children in English schools say they find other children in their classes 'kind and helpful' compared with 70% or more
in Scandinavia:

I link this to the fact that levels of trust in the society as a whole have been falling very much in the US and in Britain. I attribute this to the philosophy and individualism that your job in life is to be as successful as you can compared with other people.  That’s obviously a formula that can’t produce more happiness in society because it’s impossible for more people to be more successful compared with other people...

Audio.

Transcript.

The revenge of the public realm

Here's a short Channel 4 news piece about design for shared space, publicising the Manual for Streets.

It includes a few words from Hans Monderman, insisting on being interviewed in the traffic lane of a roundabout in Drachten, just to prove his point. All part of the revenge of the public realm, and the victory which I anticipate of informality over the behaviour-accountants.

Via the Streets-L list.

Spectacle and local action: creative uses of technology

Here's Mr Punch and the Plague Doctor - costumed characters wearing digital sensors that monitor environmental levels in the street. For a fun hour or so yesterday, a performance around the streets of Hoxton in north London entertained a gaggle of followers, residents and office workers.

The costumes were a non-fashion-oriented way of adopting wearable sensors; the carnival characters were a device to bring environmental monitoring from scientific specialism to a level of spectacle that is accessible to the local resident and the passer-by. GPS links were used for the data gathered and the potential (if not yet the real power of this kind of information) can be seen on the initial Snout prototype site.

Later a group of us took to discussing the implications of this demo project, at a workshop organised by Proboscis and inIVA, the institute of international visual arts.

At a time when the commitment of the non-specialist to overcoming environmental damage is routinely questioned or dismissed, in spite of the pressures on citizens to be more responsible, initiatives that explore meaningful ways in which local people can collect evidence for action are to be welcomed. Proboscis enhanced the potential of the project through the technique of 'media scavenging' - gathering and combining free online mapping and data sharing technologies as a form of 'guerilla public authoring' - to show how some relatively inexpensive kit can be used to mobilise people around just such issues.

What was apparent to me and to my community development colleague Bev Carter as we watched the performance, was that non-threatening spectacle using street theatre in itself has a role in stimulating conversations and engagement which (if necessary) can diffuse tensions and can be built on. Add to that the potential for collecting and manipulating data and you have a powerful community development device.

For some residents, just feeling they can occupy the streets is an important first step. Basing an initiative around carnival means you can use spectacle without script and allow things to happen. It need not have a 'climate change' theme. One of the sensors monitors noise, which is a significant issue for older people especially (reinforced in Social trends published today). It was suggested that there's also potential for exploring what goes on with CCTV (eg through video sniffin).

It would be lamentable if we don't get to see a full-scale trial of Snout in a residential context, with local people performing and exploiting the material gathered. Are there funders prepared to pick this up and help make it work?

'The locals now say hello to each other'

Hillesluis in Rotterdam has become something of a community cohesion success story, following a low point in 2004. If you recognise the name it may be because it was the area researched by Talja Blokland and described in Urban bonds.

Three years ago there were serious tensions and disturbances between ethnic groupings and around faith differences. These and the levels of disorder have been addressed with some community engagement funding which has brought people together in a series of meetings and spawned a range of initiatives. Story in Urbact newsletter. There's a project blog, Hand-in-Hand in Hillesluis (in Dutch).

Social cohesion indicators and well-being

I mentioned some UK testing of social cohesion indicators recently: now here's a Council of Europe memo about the development of cohesion indicators.

Two swallows don't make a summer, but do I detect a trend? OK, would you take four swallows? Because I think I detect two trends. The CoE defines social cohesion as 'society’s capacity for ensuring the well-being of all,' and the notion of 'well-being' features strongly in the process of developing the indicators: just as it features strongly in defining Europe's social reality (see my last post).

Stocktaking Europe's well-being

A few weeks ago the European Commission launched an open-ended consultation based on an impressive-looking paper by Roger Liddle and Fréderic Lerais, Europe's social reality.

The paper looks at common patterns in the contrasting experiences of member states and at how 'social changes can be assessed against benchmarks of well-being.'

It then attempts to open a debate about some of the key factors that contribute to well-being – such as economic opportunity, the changing nature of work, the challenges of the ageing society, demography and new patterns of family life, poverty and inequality, the barriers to good health and social mobility, quality of life, crime and anti-social behaviour, and diversity and multiculturalism.

So the Commission is seeking views on the implications of social trends and the identification and
assessment of the factors contributing to well-being in Europe. The first thing that strikes me from a quick-scan of the paper is that perhaps there could be more emphasis on the decline in, and restoration of, forms of collective behaviour.

Press release.

Neighbourhoods, parenting and children

I first heard Jacqueline Barnes talking about her research into families, parenting and neighbourhoods about three years ago and I couldn't understand why the whole world didn't know about it. I've referred to it a few times here (eg) and now it's time to welcome the book -
Down our way: the relevance of neighbourhoods for parenting and child development. It's published by Wiley and also available via Amazon.

The study threw up findings about informal social control which I've discussed in the past, but I maybe wasn't expecting the interesting focus in chapter six on the importance of local friends:

Many newcomers found that it was not easy to develop local friendships and without those it was a challenge to become involved with local campaigns or local schools.

I'm also fascinated by the question raised in chapter 9 - 'Is it better to belong to the neighbourhood?' about the tensions affecting involvement, withdrawal indoors, or moving away.

The challenge is to include in local activism those parents who feel particularly alienated from their community... Neighbourhoods that offer safe streets allow parents to walk around and chat to other local residents in informal ways could facilitate network development, which in turn is likely to strengthen their sense of belonging, and neighbourhood cohesion. Local authorities will need to develop coordinated strategies that offer more chances for local neighbourhood engagement from the most disenfranchised (no easy task) in conjunction with improving the physical environment.

If your pocket money won't stretch to buying a copy and you can't wait til Christmas, make sure your library gets it for you.

Park scene

Early April, no leaves on the trees but here's the scene in the park at lunchtime today. Even the trained eye may not be able to discern it but there are two games of cricket going on down there.

Learning the norms

Community cohesion among different ethnic groupings:

"Do you say 'Hi' to your neighbor, or not? Do you smile or not? You don't know their cultures and customs." So each week, women bring their children to meet at an adventure playground, where one community plays host and teaches the others about its culture.

From an article in Time magazine, 15 February, about integration in the London Borough of Haringey.

(Thanks once again to Ben Lee for the link).

Manual for Streets published

Highways engineers and planners already know that the Manual for streets was published the other day. But a key feature of the cultural change that it implies is that street design is pertinent to a wider range of people than just technical experts, it's also significant for community activists and neighbourhood managers. MfS seeks to promote 'greater collaboration between all those involved in the design, approval and adoption processes.'

During the draft stages I said that I thought it would be a historic document. Scanning the final version, I get the sense that some of the ambitious attempts to make it 'community-centred' may have been diluted (including community involvement, curiously, but this may be because there's perceived to be too much woolly and insubstantial rhetoric emanating in government documents on the topic already); but they're not lost. Just take the first few identified changes in approach that distinguish it from the guidance which it replaces:

• applying a user hierarchy to the design process with pedestrians at the top;
• emphasising a collaborative approach to the delivery of streets;
• recognising the importance of the community function of streets as spaces for social interaction;
• promoting an inclusive environment that recognises the needs of people of all ages and abilities...

I welcome the numerous references to the public realm, and the insistence that residential streets should be places where people can move about. MfS applies in England and Wales. The prelims tell us that it 'does not set out any new policy or legal requirements': but I think it will come to be seen as a key marker of cultural change which begins the end of car-domination of neighbourhoods.

Living Streets response is here.

CABE response.

More on local shops

I can't find the source, but today's Planning Resource reports research which found that less than a third of UK adults actually shop on the high street, although 80% believe it is important to support local retailers.

Almost three quarters of respondents said they would like to see government and local councils doing more to incentivise businesses to locate to their local area.