EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Example districts: six examples of socio-physical approach

Example districts: six examples of socio-physical approach

Introduction

In the daily work world, experts, administrators, civil servants and residents are faced with spatial change processes, issues in the field of urban development and housing, socio-cultural and social changes and economic devaluation in the development of the districts. This report gives more insight into how these issues are dealt with in real-life operations.

Description

In the research, people from the districts were asked about the district development: "what works well here and why is that, what are the keys to success and where does it go wrong?"

As they work on developing districts, experts, administrators, civil servants and residents are faced with spatial alteration processes, issues in the field of urban development and housing, socio-cultural and social changes and economic devaluation. The report gives insight into district development in the following districts:

De Mare, Alkmaar;
De Heuvel, Breda;
Oud-Krispijn, Dordrecht;
Beijum-Oost, Groningen;
Malberg, Maastricht; and
Hoogvliet, Rotterdam.

Conclusions

The approaches show a great variation in initiatives taken by people-people with their own values, lifestyles and preferences.
It was apparent that a good and successful district development depends on enterprising and passionate residents and an equally enthusiastic staff of municipalities, corporations and other parties.
Strikingly, neither residents nor the civil servants, administrators and corporations involved distinguished between social, physical or economic policy in the districts.
The six districts chosen are certainly not the only districts where innovative, bold approaches occur. The districts were selected based on the things learnt, the successes achieved and the differences in the phases of implementation of the district approach.
The report gives an overview of the 'critical factors' that are crucial in restructuring practices and of the ways in which they were handled in the example districts. In this way, one examines the themes of resident’s participation, dealing with flexibility, cooperation and financing.

Contact info

NovioConsult, tel. +31 24 381 33 33

Publication date

30/11/2003

Researcher

Opdam E., A. Voorburg, J. Kappe

Cities

The cities of Alkmaar, Breda, Dordrecht, Groningen, Maastricht and Rotterdam.

Links

NovioConsult (in Dutch)

Example districts (PDF, Dut, 720 KB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Urban environment > Urban renewal

Keywords

City centre development