Alasdair Rae's presentation at AESOP 2009 in Liverpool, UK.

1. Geographically-Targeted Urban
Policies and the Complications of
Space: Some Thoughts
Alasdair Rae
Department of Town and Regional Planning
University of Sheffield, UK
AESOP 2009: ‘Why can’t the future be more like the past?’
Liverpool, UK – July 15-18 2009
City Futures ‘09, 4-6 June 2009, Madrid

2. Overview
• Context (is the pot boiling again?)
• And, will the future be like the past?
• Placing ABIs (conceptually/spatially)
• Rise to prominence of ABIs
• Urban problems or urban symptoms?
• A spatial framework
• England’s North West (exemplar?)
• Post-industrial challenges
• Policy responses
• Some spatial data: commuting
4. Complications
• Spatial complexity is a reality
• How should we understand it?
5. Where now for ABIs?
• Re-invigoration or re-evaluation…

3. 1. Context
Why ask the question?
• 40+ years of urban policy
• New commitment in US…
– e.g. Obama, 13 July 2009
• What are the alternatives?
• Questioning policy models
• Will the future of urban
policy be just like the past?

4. 2. Placing ABIs (conceptually/spatially)
Rise to prominence of ABIs
• Markets:
– Inefficiency
– Failure
• Spatial strategies
• People vs. places?
• ‘Good’ policies for
‘bad’ areas?
• ‘Pathological’ issues Cabrini-Green, Chicago, USA (2008)

5. Urban problems or urban symptoms?
• What is the focus?
– Efficiency
– Effectiveness
• Orientation reflected
in policy formulation Tourcoing, Lille Métropole, France (2009)
• Ontological paradox?

6. A spatial framework
• Macro-spatial (e.g. UK) Nation
– National scale
– Poverty as problem
– Inequality
• Meso-spatial (e.g. France)
– Spatial mismatch City
– Locational disadvantage
– Inefficiency
• Micro-spatial (e.g. US)
– Internal problems
– Local solutions Neighbourhood
– Inadequacy

7. 3. England’s North West (exemplar?)
Post-industrial challenges
North West
Economic Urban policy
re-structuring interventions
• North West England
– Dominated by Manchester and Liverpool
– 4.0 million people in two metro areas
– High levels of deprivation, lots of intervention

8. Policy responses

9. Some spatial data: commuting
• Targeted areas are not islands
• Evidence of spatial mismatch
• Labour market ‘inefficiencies’?
Self Workers
Commuting
IMD Internal Contain- Living
Ward Inflow Outflow Net Flow 5km or
Rank Flow ment Locally
More (%)
(%) (%)
Princess (Knowsley) 1 139 378 1,108 -730 11.15 26.89 54.37
Breckfield (Liverpool) 2 452 1,539 2,400 -861 15.85 22.70 24.79
Bradford (Manchester) 3 565 5,254 1,987 3,267 22.14 9.71 33.15
Granby (Liverpool) 4 441 1,805 2,028 -223 17.86 19.63 24.71
Speke (Liverpool) 5 465 836 1,799 -963 20.54 35.74 43.73
Longview (Knowsley) 7 177 395 1,130 -735 13.54 30.94 49.12

10. 4. Complications
Spatial complexity is a reality
• Reality = challenging
• Heal the patient by
dressing the wound?
• Is the model correct?
• Spatial dynamics, Toxteth, Liverpool (2005)
e.g. mix = movement

11. How should we understand it?
• Need a coherent
spatial framework
• Focus on mobility
• Understanding the
‘problem’
Red Road Flats, Glasgow, Scotland (2004)
• Evaluation factors

12. 5. Where now for ABIs?
Re-invigoration or re-evaluation…
• New wave of policy
transfer?
• Continue ‘spatial
rationalist’ approach?
• More fundamental re-think?
• No urban policy? What then?