Themes:
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Michael
Safier (2003), The Inter-dimensional Analysis of Urban Development:
A Guide to the Organisation of Cases and Their Linkages,
DPU, London |
Annex:
Background to 'Interdimensional Analysis' |
Michael
Safier (2003), Exploring 'Room for Manoeuvre' for 'Drivers
of Change': Promoting Sustainable Progress in Urban Areas,
DPU, London |
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THE
INTER-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS
OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT:
A Guide to the Organisation
of Cases and their Linkages
by Michael Safier
Development Planning Unit
UCL
1. CITIES AND DEVELOPMENT
Cities are the most complex, dynamic and powerful systems
for generating and transmitting wealth and well being for
very large numbers of people that have so far been evolved
by humanity. They are also, locations of great inequality
and persistent poverty, and are highly sensitive to disturbing
influences arising far outside their open and permeable
boundaries. Both these characteristics are being intensified
by contemporary globalisation, which is restructuring patterns
of urban living, working and associating in an increasingly
globalised world.
Cities are becoming ever more significant in the drive
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the
international development community, which will depend on
the adoption and adaptation in the urban context of a reinforcing
system of innovative practices, including the building of
institutional capacities to implement and maintain them.
There are a multiplicity of initiatives that are currently
advancing performance in areas ranging from poverty reduction,
social capital formation, employment generation, gender
equality, and environmental sustainability, through to good
governance processes and partnerships, effective planning
and management, and the socially just and equitable distribution
of resources to those who need them most. Information on
many of these initiatives is widely available in publications
and throughout the internet responding to the need to advance
knowledge sharing and contribute to processes of development.
The present compilation provides the urban practioner with
an easy access to a wide range of material recently produced
by international organisations, bilateral institutions,
development think-tanks and renowned scholars and opinion
makers focusing on urban development.
Cities are intrinsically multi — rather than single
— dimensional in character. They contain the intersection
of interacting spheres of human existence and effort. These
different aspects of urban development are all important
in influencing the immediate issues and future prospects
faced by cities worldwide. They are all inter-related in
a complex and dynamic system of interdependent parts, where
for example access to informal urban activities influence
the housing and health conditions of low-income households,
and eliminating endemic disease is a function of health
education and urban infrastructure provision, and both are
impacted by changes in allocations within municipal budgets
and the organisational capacities of urban service providers.
These multiple interdependencies require a way of understanding,
and of intervening in, the development of cities, that can
fully realise their potential to advance the welfare and
wellbeing of all their citizens: and successfully accommodate
all those who will become citizens over the next generation.
The users to which this compilation is most immediately
directed are all those acting, or attempting to act, as
“drivers of change” in the city, whether in
public, private or civil society institutions, organisations
or enterprises, who are seeking a greater “room for
manoeuvre” in which to explore available avenues of
advance in the direction of bringing about sustainable improvements
in urban life. This is the reason why the present compilation
is organised around different ‘dimensions’ of
urban development and catalogues the accumulation of principles,
and examples of innovative practice, which ‘cluster’
around these dimensions. This form of organisation allows
the user to explore the multiple linkages between different
dimensions and clusters and to accumulate the direct and
indirect assembly of relevant ideas and experiences available,
from whichever starting point is chosen by them.
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2.
THE ‘INTER-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT
The classification and grouping of principles and case
studies contained in this compilation follows a logic of
identifying major ‘dimensions’ of urban development
which are intrinsic to the functioning of cities. These
‘dimensions’ are the most relevant for the purposes
of displaying the full richness and diversity of innovations,
and also for illustrating the potential of their multiple
inter-linkages to further advance the initial improvements
being made in any particular area of initiative.
There appear to be five such primary dimensions
of urban life, namely:
a) the functioning of an urban ‘economy’,
which encompass primary changes in patterns of production,
work and employment, investment and productivity, trade,
income and wealth, consumption patterns and financial transactions;
b) the functioning of an urban ‘social system’,
which encompass primary changes in patterns of mobility
and migration, occupational status and reward, life chances,
the character of family life, the circumstances of gender
and age, the stratification of classes and groups, and the
spatial segregation of residences and communities;
c) the functioning of an urban ‘political
system’ , which encompass primary changes
in patterns of power and influence, the character of political
regimes, the behaviour of local governmental and administrative
institutions, public expenditures and revenues, planning
and management, and the degrees of participation and empowerment
of clients and citizens;
d) the functioning of urban ‘cultural life’,
which encompass primary changes in patterns of everyday
living and conventional behaviours, intellectual and popular
discourses, creativity and diversity in artistic expression
and media communication, and the character of collective
cultural identities sharing the city;
e) the functioning of urban ‘spatial organisation’,
which encompass primary changes in patterns of distribution
of people and activities in the city, the costs and benefits
of varying locations, the character of environmental impacts
and ecological modifications, and the formation of ‘places’
both physical and symbolic.
These five ‘dimensions’ have therefore been
chosen as the basis for the classification and presentation
of initiatives in this compilation.
3. DOCUMENTING
INNOVATIONS IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT: Their Dimensions and Clusters
The innovative principles and cases included in this compilation
have been classified and organised in terms of their position
and interrelation in different primary ‘dimensions’
of urban development (as identified through “inter-dimensional
analysis”) These primary dimensions are then disaggregated
into component ‘clusters’ of innovations, which
identify discrete groups of principles and cases interlinked
within a particular dimension. This allows for the possibility
of tracing their links with ‘clusters’ within
other dimensions, thus alerting users to the direct and
indirect potentials for complementary initiatives to be
pursued.
The five primary ‘dimensions’, used to order
the information presented, correspond to the five basic
ways in which urbanisation and cities can contribute to
the advancement of development targets and objectives, such
as the ‘Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These
are:
1. Urban Economy
Cities are the driving forces of economic development –
their concentrations of industry, commerce and services
contributes the larger part of production and wealth creation
in any national economy; while their centrality in transportation
links and distribution networks, and their possession of
the sophisticated infrastructures and advanced forms of
human capital are the foundations of continuing technological
innovation and increasing productivity.
2. City & Society
Cities are the major centres of the struggle for social
development – their concentration of large and diverse
populations, and their attraction of migrants, provide the
conditions for social innovation and changes in social relations
that are key to increasing social welfare for greater numbers;
while at the same time they are the focal points of social
struggles for an increased quality of life and social provision,
and the centres of influence on changing values in wider
societies.
3. Urban Governance
Cities are the most advanced, and demanding, arenas of governance
– their multi-level intensity of public, private and
social organisation, of planning and management functions,
and of specialist administrations, are a forcing ground
of organisational innovations; and at the same time they
provide the stimulation for new forms of participation,
empowerment and accountability, arising out of the emergence
of diverse social movements and non-governmental and community-based
networks.
4. Urban Environment
Cities are the generators of very significant environmental
impacts – their concentration of people and activities
in small geographical areas contribute to high levels of
energy use, waste products, pollution, and ecological modification;
while their complex processes of expansion and renovation
of the built environment increase the pressure to find sustainable
arrangements for future growth.
5. Urban Infrastructure,
Services and Management
Cities are the most intensive and productive forms of accommodating
and servicing very large and growing numbers of people at
minimum cost — the transformation of the physical
built environment itself involves both wealth creation and
social organisation in highly complex forms of spatial organisation;
at the same time both urban residents and institutions are
deeply involved in processes of housing, infrastructure
and settlement production and distribution, that require
the full range of planning and management procedures and
public-private-social collaborations to sustain them.
Each of these ‘dimensions’ has been further
classified in terms of ‘clusters’ of innovations
arranged by the variety of policies, practices and capacities
covered by this compilation. The clusters show the full
range of categories into which the documentation assembled
can be consulted:
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3.1.
URBAN ECONOMY: six clusters of innovative
policies and practices that contribute, together with their
multiple interrelationships, to the ‘economic dimension’
of urban development. They are:
responses to globalisation and structural adjustment
programmes: including new policy analyses of
urban economies and new initiatives and practical measures
to modify the impact of adjustment on poor communities;
macro-economic development and finance:
including new analyses of relationships between urban
economic growth and urban poverty, new assessments of
urban competitiveness, and new guidelines for urban development
strategies, urban taxation and financial improvements;
employment and labour markets: including
small and medium enterprise development, skills enhancement,
and new directions in labour market segmentation;
informal economy : including measures
to provide improved provisions for legal recognition,
regularisation of land and housing developments and street
trading;
fostering innovative financial mechanisms:
including new practices in savings and loan schemes, micro-finance,
community asset management, and community finance facilities.
urban-rural interactions : new initiatives
to negotiate the urban-rural divide, manage the agrarian-urbanisation
transition, protect the position of the rural and urban
poor, and encourage appropriate forms of peri-urban governance;
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3.2.
CITY & SOCIETY: six clusters of innovative
policies and practices contribute, together with their multiple
interrelationships, to the ‘social dimension’
of urban development. They are :
sustaining urban livelihoods : including
new approaches to poverty reduction though social mobilisation,
new schemes for directly addressing poverty and vulnerability
through social organisation, and more effective forms
of access to support infrastructures and services;
promoting social inclusion: including
strategies for ‘people-friendly’ city services,
for child-centred provisions, fully participative urban
regeneration schemes, immigrant absorption programmes,
and citizen education projects;
supporting gender equality and empowerment:
including specific provisions for property rights recognition,
mothers and children support schemes, public transport
security, and basic service localisation ; and general
support for women in community activist and leadership
roles, and innovative institutional practices mainstreaming
gender equity in access to services and career opportunities;
improving health and education for all:
including new forms of community and informal education
programmes, public information centres, extensions to
the coverage of primary education for marginal groups,
health education schemes in schools and communities, environmental
awareness projects, and community-based sanitation and
waste recycling schemes;
enhancing culture & identity: including
innovative programmes in cultural heritage, arts and celebrations,
conservation of historic buildings as cultural patrimony,
and mobilisation around cultural practices for generating
economic opportunities and community cohesion;
reducing violence and advancing human rights:
including innovative programmes for protection against
domestic and public violence against women, protection
of street children and child sweated labour, prevention
of inter-communal conflict, and establishment of human
rights provisions in city government charters and administrative
practices.
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3.3.
URBAN GOVERNANCE: six clusters of innovative
policies and practices that contribute, together with their
multiple interrelationships, to the ‘political dimension’
of urban development. They are:
democracy & empowerment: including
enhancing representation and participation at the local
level, supporting community and neighbourhood self-government,
the extension of local electoral registration, and innovative
practices in deliberative democratic assemblies;
participatory processes & tools for
poor communities: including new varieties of participatory
learning, action research, planning, and policy dialogue;
community consultation, community partnerships, social
movements and civil society association involvement;
community action, organisation & asset management:
including innovative practices in self- provision and
accessing land, transport, infrastructure and basic services,
establishment of community resource centres, neighbourhood
action committees, strengthening of asset management and
mobilisation by poor households and communities;
participatory urban management & budgeting:
including a variety of successful cases of citizens’
participation in political affairs, developing their political
engagement in the redistribution of public resources and
stimulating greater municipal accountability
capacity-building for an enabling environment
: including innovative policies and projects in inclusive
governance for neighbourhood renewal, central city regeneration,
access to GIS and related technologies, and knowledge-sharing;
promoting accountability and transparency
: including anti-bribery and corruption schemes, and innovative
practices in ‘ethical’ governance, transparent
procurement and contracting.
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3.4.
URBAN ENVIRONMENT: There are four clusters
of innovative policies and practices that contribute, together
with their multiple interrelationships, to the ‘environmental
dimension’ of urban development. They are:
supporting sustainable cities and the
notion of ecological footprint: including
new policy and programme initiatives in global-local linkages,
economic- environmental trade-offs, priorities and strategies
for ecological conservation, the setting up of sustainability
indicators, responsibilising the use of resources and
minimising unsustainable consumption;
combating environmental degradation, health hazards
and pollution: including innovative technical,
social and community-based responses to water, sanitation,
and waste disposal, and industrial and urban energy pollution,
together with public health protection and hazard reduction
measures;
promoting Local Agenda 21 : including
innovative schemes for community natural resource conservation,
community partnerships and co-operatives for greening
local development programmes, recycling projects and urban
agriculture practices, and the extension of local sustainability
indicators and monitoring processes;
expanding environmental planning and management
: including mainstreaming environmental assessment of
local government policies and programmes, linking environmental
with poverty reduction and basic service provision, and
developing municipal planning sustainable cities.
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3.5.
URBAN INFRASTRUCTURES, SERVICES & MANAGEMENT:
five clusters of innovative policies and practices that
contribute, together with their multiple interrelationships,
to the ‘infrastructure and settlements dimension’
of urban development. They are:
securing land tenure: including measures
to improve access to land for the poor through appropriate
land tenure provisions, titles and regularisation and
consolidation procedures, shifting from illegal to informal
recognition of settlements to provide security and asset
value to poor communities, and providing for mediation
and arbitration processes for dispute resolution;
enhancing shelter & settlement management:
including measures to encourage slum improvement and neighbourhood
rehabilitation for the urban poor, recognising informal
shelter and settlement development, making suitable provision
for the homeless, and providing the planning frameworks
suited to expansion in ‘affordable’ housing;
improving urban mobility & transport:
including innovative schemes for increasing access to
public transport, improving quality, reliability and affordability
of city bus and rail travel, recognising the role of informal
transport modes for the urban poor, and linking transport
system development with employment generation and environmental
impact measures;
promoting public-private-community partnerships
for urban service delivery: including appropriate
operation and maintenance protocols, financial and service
guidelines, subsidy and profitability sharing, and community
capacity building in provision of basic water, sanitation,
waste disposal, electricity and energy sectors;
enhancing strategic, participative and responsive
urban planning: including innovative programmes
and processes to support integrated infrastructure investment
and linked spatial development schemes, mixed use, compact
density development incorporating employment and housing
meeting the needs of the urban poor, and forms of consultative
and empowering ‘peoples planning’ practice.
promoting the use of appropriate technology:
including the experimentation with new or improved construction
techniques, the application of low cost building technology,
the use of appropriate materials and the directions of
applied research.
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4.
CONCLUDING NOTE
The listing of the five main ‘dimensions’ of
innovation in principles and practices, and their respective
clusters, provides users with a wide range of possibilities
in ‘tracing’ or ‘tracking’ complementary
initiatives and experiences. Starting from ‘where
you are now’, this scheme allows you to follow through
a variety of ‘inter-dimensional pathways’ leading
towards mutually reinforcing initiatives – in different
sectors, at different levels, with different actors, using
different methods, skills and local or global knowledge
bases. In this way, the documented innovative principles
and practices offer opportunities for ‘drivers of
change’ to explore the full potential of a constantly
increasing volume and variety of allied thinking and transformative
actions.
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