COMMUNITIES OF PLACE, INTEREST & SCALE

Copyright 2011 Phil Heywood

Outline of Lecture1. Introduction: Definition & Scales

2. The Local Scale• Communities & Social Evolution • The Role of Mutual Aid & the growth of Town Planning • Community Planning Characteristics & Implications • Case Study : Brisbane South Bank Gardens

BUZZ PAIRS: LOCAL- GLOBAL PLANNING LINKS

3. The Regional & Metropolitan Scale • Current Growth of Regional & Metro Communities • Examples, focus on Portland (Oregon) & London

4. The Supranational & Global Scale • Long History of Global Communities • New Global Communities of Interest • Supranational Political Communities – UN, EU etc

5. Conclusions:

• Common ground of Community Planning at wide range of scales • Links with social capital.

What is Community?

• A community is a group of people who experience and acknowledge significant links, expectations and responsibilities towards each other

• Improved techniques of communication have therefore influenced the levels & places where communities can develop and be planned

• This gives rise to the contemporary concept of“glocal communities ” : ones acting locally but thinking & relating within global networks.

• Local community life continues to provide people’s most important social and physical contexts everywhere, despite the expanding scale of post modernity

Scales of Community

• Local• Urban• Regional• National• Supra National & • Global

Social Evolution of Local Communities

1. Collective camps of early humanity: the communal wickerwork shelters of 11 families of Terra Amata 300,000 years BP.

2. Communal farming of the Neolithic village of 10,000 BP

3. The Guild-based communes which started the Renaissance in 11th & 12th Centuries in central and Northern Italy

4. Community Life, communal dining halls, and representative governance in More’s Utopia of 1516

1. Collective camps of early humanity: the communal wickerwork shelters of 11 families of Terra Amata 300,000 years BP.

2. Communal farming of the Neolithic village of 10,000 BP

3. The Guild-based communes which started the Renaissance in 11th & 12th Centuries in central and Northern Italy

4. Community Life, communal dining halls, and representative governance in More’s Utopia of 1516

Reconstruction of One of Eleven Terra Amata Shelters

(Source, Richard Leakey, Making of Mankind, 1981)

Medieval Community

• Mutual Aid

• Shared values

After 7 centuries of annual occasions, Siena still holds in the Campo, the annual Palio or horse race among the 30-40 contradi which make up the city.

Lorenzetti’s Allegories of Good and Bad Government are still on daily display in the Palazzo Publico on the right of this photo.

The Role of Local Designin the Growth of Community Planning

1. Robert Owen’s New Lanark (1799-1822) & Fourier’s Community Workshops (1840s)

2. Wool-weaving Saltaire (1860s), soap-making Port Sunlight and chocolate-based Bourneville (1890s)

3. Community Spirit – the aim of Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities (1899), Letchworth (1902), Hampstead (1906) & Welwyn (1919)

• School “(Institute for the Formation of Character”)& hall in front

• Factory in middle

• Dwellings on slopes

• Wharves on Riverside ( R. Clyde)

• Green setting all around

Wool weaving Saltaire (1860s)David Hockney’s depiction (2000s)

Local planning implications of design today

Implicit aim of Peter Calthorpe et al’s New Urbanism, & master planned settlements of USA & Australia:

People who experience and acknowledge significant links, expectations and responsibilities towards each other

USA’s Community Development Corporations, Retirement Villages and Garden Suburbs like South East Queensland’s Springfield & North Lakes

Community Planning Implications

- Communities of Inclusion:• Bentley et al: Responsive Environments• Hester’s “Sacred Places” & “Subconscious Landscapes of the Heart” • Shared spaces, Cultural Mapping & Community Cultural Festivals• 14 Community Renewal Programs in Queensland 1998 >2010.

- Communities of Exclusion: • Walled & gated settlements • Segregation by race and class• Public Housing ghettos• Roles of local communities: integrating newcomers across time and place and managing change

6 Shared Elements of Local Community Planning

1. Shared facilities – education, shops & recreation

2. Shared spaces for play, pleasure & casual contact

3. Shared cultural symbols: New Zealand - Maori Marae

4. Shared paths – tracks, walkways, bikeways,

5. Safeguarded landmarks

6. Shared information & collaborative governance

Case Study:Brisbane’s Southbank Gardens

Initial Proposals for 1988 post Expo site redevelopment:

River City 2000 proposal for:37.5 hectare Inner City site: - Half a million square metres of high rise office blocks- Riverside Casino and Conference Centre- High density residential Islands in Brisbane River- Luxury canal developments on South Bank- Privatised frontage- no public access- to Brisbane River

The Public Response

• Opposition from City Council, Designers, Environmentalists, Community Groups & Academics to scale, scope & character of state government scheme,

.• Public Protest meetings in city centre

• Newspaper survey - preference outcomes:1. People Place2. Riverside Parkland3. Public access to waterfront4. Preserve sociable “Spirit of Expo”.

Planning Institute of Australia: “5 Principles”

1. Metropolitan scale and community style land uses

2. Unrestricted public access throughout site

3. Continuous riverside open space and access

4. Terracing of development back from riverside

5. Preservation of city centre vistas of Mount Coot Tha & Border Ranges

6. Permeability and links to adjacent inner suburbs

Sequence of Events1. New Design Competition with more sensitive guidelines

declared by new Premier in 1989

2. New Scheme provisionally adopted & put out to 3 months of public consultation, generally accepting Planning Institute Principles & Survey Preferences (but also expanding role of Southbank Corporation to “reap profit” and levy rates from much a much enlarged 300 ha. “Complementary Area”)

3. Public Approval for public access, bikeways, parkland entertainment, recreation & tourism.

4. Professional, Community & Academic criticism of • Threat of “invasion and succession” of West End Rental

Areas from designation of “Complementary Area”• 8,000 car parking spaces• Lack of public transport

5. Amendment & Adoption & construction of scheme 1990-1992

Outcomes1. All recommendations of the public consultation were accepted by

Southbank Corporation & Cabinet in 1989

2 In 1992 Southbank Gardens opened with parks, pools, tourist features, entertainment, space for offices, medium rise housing, hotels and ferry stations• Recreation & tourism activities for wide metropolis• Public access & bikeways throughout the site. • Riverside parkland with bathing pools and entertainment accessible

from West End to waterfront • Views preservation of Border Range from city centre• Housing and hotels in the middle of the site • Convention Centre and office sites behind• Informal meeting spaces for locals & international visitors to share a

public • increase of 50% in numbers of tourists visiting Brisbane to over a

million in 1992,in South Bank’s first year of operation.

3. Maintenance of Inner City rental role of West End

Outcomes • River front Promenade:• South Bank Markets:• Little Stanley Street: dine out and shop • Hands On Art: holiday workshops, daily activities• Musgrave Park Cultural Centre: meeting spaces and a 'yarning' circle. • Queensland Art Gallery:• Queensland College of Art Griffith University:• Queensland Gallery of Modern Art:• Queensland Maritime Museum:• Queensland Museum:• River festival: celebrates Brisbane as the River City • Sciencentre: science in action • The Goodwill Bridge: just under 500 metres long linking to university campus

BUZZ PAIRS

- In pairs, identify a significant local planning issue affecting a community of which you are aware and discuss how this is being tackled

Reasons for Growing Importance of Urban, Regional & Metropolitan Communities

1. Increased interaction: More physical movement; wider “commuter sheds”; expanding metropolitan scale housing markets and recreation patterns

2. Intensified technological & environmental impacts of metros:• Atmosphere (the “air shed”) • Water capture & catchments (region- wide floods and

droughts).• Communications : Regional Radio, TV and Newspapers

3. Widening scale of Local Government : • Collaborative Regional Districts in British Columbia• Amalgamated Regional Councils in Queensland

“Send not to ask for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for thee!”

Roles of Metro communities: integrating newcomers and managing change across time and place

Examples of Regional Communities

Metro regions:- ( such as Greater London, Barcelona, Kolkuta,

Shanghai,Toronto, Los Angeles, Portland & Vancouver) with integrated economies, environmental management imperatives and transport systems

Rural regions of challenge & development :- The 6 state Tennessee Valley Area (TVA) of USA’s Appalachia; Australia’s 4 State Murray Darling

Basin;Netherlands' new Polder Province; Italy's

Mezzogiorno; & EUs Objective 1 and 2 Regions

Metropolitan regions:with integrated economies, environmental management imperatives and transport systems( such as:

Greater London, Barcelona, Kolkuta, Shanghai,Toronto, Los Angeles, Portland & Vancouver)

The 6 state Tennessee Valley Area (TVA) of USA’s Appalachia;

Australia’s 4 State Murray Darling Basin;Netherlands' new Polder Province; Italy's Mezzogiorno; EUs Objective 1 and 2 Regions

Metropolitan Community Planning – Transport, Environment, Housing & Employment in Portland, Oregon.

• 102 Neighbourhood Associations supported by Portland City Office of Neighbourhood Involvement (ONI)• Active involvement of 1000 Friends of Oregon

• Urban Growth Boundary to raise local densities & protect Green zone• Metro Area Express 140kms light rail to serve new TODs & Airport• Green zone with public recreation

Supranational and Global Communities: Long History of Worldwide Religious Communities & Empires

2,000 Year History of religious communities spreading to all parts of the known world:

• Buddhism to China, Japan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, •Christianity to Northern Europe, Scandinavia, Southern Africa, the Americas and Australasia & •Islam to Northern Africa, South Eastern Europe and Central and Southern Asia.

(Each now consists of a community of communities, based on shared values and beliefs, reinforced through daily local religious observances, with strong emphases placed on going to church or mosque & on communal prayers supporting strong feelings of local affiliation.)

Great Empires of Antiquity

• Asoka’s India of 4th century BC

• Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire from Adriatic to Afghanistan

• Han empire of China & Central Asia

• Inca empire of South America.

Global Communities:Non Spatial Communities of Interest

1. Control of global economy • from 6 or 7 World Cities- New York, London, Frankfurt,

Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai.

2. New global networks of shared interest • 20th C Revolution in Information & Communications

Technology (ICT) is claimed to have dissolved old boundaries & ended the “Tyranny of Distance”, replacing “The Urban Place” with the “Non Place Urban Realm” of shared interests (Melvin Webber, 1964 )

• The global economy is matched by instantaneous communication around the world among communities concerned with environment, religion, social justice, health promotion & ideas exchange

Examples of New Communities of 20th and 21st Centuries

1. Environmental Groups: Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund , Climate Change Alliances

2. Social Justice organizations: Oxfam, World Vision, Medecins sans Frontieres

3. Activist organizations: anti - World Trade Organization networks successfully opposing Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and increased International Division of Labour (at Calcun, Milan & other Conferences).

These global communities are still concerned to achieve local change – they have widened the scope of local planning rather than replaced it.

Roles of global communities of interest: managing change and integrating newcomers between times and places

Supranational Political Communities

New Supranational Bodies plan integrated benefits through collaboration to manage external challenges:

1. 60 year old United Nations aiming to plan for welfare of human community

2. The 50 year history of the European Union (EU), expanding from 6 to 27 countries & its current position as the world’s largest economy

3. North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) of USA, Canada & Mexico

4. Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)

5. A host of international bodies- FAO (food), WHO (health), ILO (labour), HABITAT (housing), IUCN (nature conservation).

Supranational Political Communities

All of these bodies will increasingly have to adopt the same planning principles of comprehensive review and multiple levels of governance as in the classical community planning examples we have examinhjed at smaller scales.

Roles of Supranational communities: integrating newcomers across time and place and managing change

Conclusion1: Common features of Community Planning

1. Mixed scanning

i. Between spaces and topics: need to scan widely across a whole array of factors & fields; while still focusing strategically on specific key activities

& also

ii. Between short and long term futures and concerns: need to review long term directions and goals ; while still developing short term and practical action programs

Conclusions 2:Common Methods of Social Enquiry & Consultation

Community Planning methods will include the following activities, irrespective of their different levels & scales (both a Local Creek Corridor Plan & an International Valley Conservation scheme) will need to consider:

• Population characteristics, capacities, culture & preferences• The competing demands for and needs of different activities• The needs and resources of local communities. • Community organization & governance• Local and global sustainability• Demands on regional scale supplies (water, power, access)• Conflicting policies of different levels of government

Conclusion 3:Links with Social Capital

Integrating people & activities across this very wide range of scales depends upon developing a common core of social, cultural & human capital, which was the subject of one of the lectures in the previous session