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For the Repoliticization of Global City Research: FOR THE REPOLITICIZATION OF GLOBAL CITY RESEARCH
... We thus ask about the affordability of housing in mixed-use zones for different kinds of workers when there is reduced government support for affordable housing. In doing so, we raise an important distributional question: Mixed use for whom (Fainstein, 2010 ;Marcuse, 2016 )? ...
... Beyond income segregation, a city where some occupational groups are more likely to live in amenity-rich areas may lead to challenges in areas such as transportation; for instance, low-income service sector workers may be unable to fi nd affordable housing near their places of work. We also respond in this study to calls for analyses to consider more explicitly the social equity perspective within planning policy, which requires consideration of dimensions of social class such as occupation (Marcuse, 2016 ). ...
... The growing popularity of mixed-use zoning also coincides with an increase in occupational polarization. There has been growth in upwardly mobile, knowledgeintensive professional and managerial occupations, as well as growth in low-skill service occupations, whereas employment in manufacturing occupations has declined (Florida, 2014(Florida, , 2017Marcuse, 2016 ;Sassen, 2013 ;Vinodrai, 2015 ). These changes in the occupational structure have occurred because of economic restructuring toward an informationand knowledge-based economy, especially through deindustrialization and the associated growth of well-paid service sector jobs or creative class occupations (Florida, 2014(Florida, , 2017Sassen, 2013 ;Vinodrai, 2015 ). ...
Problem, research strategy, and findings: Mixed-use zoning is widely advocated to increase density; promote active transportation; encourage economic development; and create lively, diverse neighborhoods. We know little, however, about whether mixed-use developments affect housing affordability. We question the impact of mixed-use zoning on housing affordability in Toronto (Canada) between 1991 and 2006 in the face of waning government support for affordable housing and increasing income inequality due to the occupational restructuring accompanying a shift to a knowledge-based economy. We fi nd that housing in mixed-use zones remained less affordable than housing in the rest of the city and in the metropolitan region. High-income service occupations experienced improved affordability while lower wage service, trade, and manufacturing occupations experienced stagnant or worsening affordability. Housing in mixed-use zones is increasingly affordable only to workers already able to pay higher housing costs. Our findings are limited to Canada's largest city but have lessons for large North American cities with similar urban economies and housing markets.
Takeaway for practice: Mixed-use developments may reduce housing affordability in core areas and inadvertently reinforce the sociospatial inequality resulting from occupational polarization unless supported by appropriate affordable housing policies. Planners should consider a range of policy measures to offset the unintentional outcomes of mixed-use developments and ensure affordability within mixed-use zones: inclusionary zoning, density bonuses linked to affordable housing, affordable housing trusts, and other relevant methods.
... As cities are becoming increasingly integrated with the global networks, Saskia Sassen's (1991) emphasizes the flow of information and capital. It is imperative to understand firms in historical times cannot be equal to the firms we presently understand, as they are both contextually different (Marcuse 2016). Sassen (1991) agrees with Castells (2010) that the flows of information are no longer bound by national borders and systems of regulation. ...
... Our elaboration and adjustment afterMarcuse (2016).Frontiers in Sustainable Cities | www.frontiersin.org ...
Urbanization is widely recognized as a relentless trend at the global level. Nevertheless, a comprehensive assessment of urban systems able to address the future growth and decline of cities is still lacking. Urban systems today rely on abundant resources, flowing in from other regions, and their future availability and accessibility should be taken into consideration to ensure urban well-being and resilience in likely post-growth scenarios. A logical framework to address the challenge of urban planning and management to promote long-term urban system sustainability is proposed. Systems thinking and diagramming are applied, while comprehensively tracking the key material flows upon which cities depend back to their sources. First, the nexus among resources and urban activities is identified, and then its circularity is framed within a wider discourse on urban sustainability and resilience. Discussion is carried out within a twofold perspective of both existing and newly built environments, while related economies are analyzed in order to find possible game-changing scenarios.
Justice has always been a major topic within political philosophy, but scholars in the behavioural sciences have largely avoided normative statements. After the urban uprisings of the 1960s and 1970s, however, leftist scholars adopted a critical approach that, while not specifying a concept of justice, injected a moral dimension into their work. Within urban studies, the argument of Henri Lefebvre, who defined space as a social construction and who maintained that all groups should have a ‘right to the city’, became particularly influential. During the 1990s, scholars began to be more explicit about the concept of justice. Three main approaches to urban justice were developed: (1) communicative rationality; (2) recognition of diversity; (3) the just city/spatial justice. Differences between the communicative and just city approaches revolved around emphasis on democracy versus equity, process versus outcome. I argue that democracy, diversity, and equity are the three governing principles for urban justice but also recognize the tension among them. Although structural transformation cannot be achieved at the municipal level, a change in the rhetoric around urban policy from a focus on competitiveness to a discourse about justice can improve the quality of life for urban residents.
Searching for the Just City: Debates in urban theory and Practice
- Susan Fainstein
What Is a Global City
- Renn Aaron
2012 What Is a Global City? http://www.newgeography.com/content/003292-what-is-a-global-city
- Aaron M Renn