Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- Preface
- Notes on contributors
- one Restructuring large housing estates in European cities: an introduction
- two Large housing estates in Europe: a contemporary overview
- three Place making and large estates: theory and practice
- four Large housing estates in their historical context
- five Privatisation and after
- six Tackling social cohesion in ethnically diverse estates
- seven Social mix and social perspectives in post-war housing estates
- eight On physical determinism and displacement effects
- nine Who leaves Sweden’s large housing estates?
- ten Demolition of large housing estates: an overview
- eleven Building partnerships in Spanish and Italian regeneration processes
- twelve Local participation in Spain and the Netherlands
- thirteen Fighting unemployment on large housing estates: an example from Sweden
- fourteen Feelings of insecurity and young people in housing estates
- fifteen Restructuring large housing estates: does gender matter?
- sixteen Knowledge management and enhanced policy application
- seventeen Conclusions
- Appendix The context of this edited volume
- Index
eight - On physical determinism and displacement effects
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- Preface
- Notes on contributors
- one Restructuring large housing estates in European cities: an introduction
- two Large housing estates in Europe: a contemporary overview
- three Place making and large estates: theory and practice
- four Large housing estates in their historical context
- five Privatisation and after
- six Tackling social cohesion in ethnically diverse estates
- seven Social mix and social perspectives in post-war housing estates
- eight On physical determinism and displacement effects
- nine Who leaves Sweden’s large housing estates?
- ten Demolition of large housing estates: an overview
- eleven Building partnerships in Spanish and Italian regeneration processes
- twelve Local participation in Spain and the Netherlands
- thirteen Fighting unemployment on large housing estates: an example from Sweden
- fourteen Feelings of insecurity and young people in housing estates
- fifteen Restructuring large housing estates: does gender matter?
- sixteen Knowledge management and enhanced policy application
- seventeen Conclusions
- Appendix The context of this edited volume
- Index
Summary
Problems and questions
Housing estate restructuring tends to target specific areas that need to be restructured. Usually the areas involved are clearly delineated spaces. A main topic of social science research, which aims to evaluate restructuring policies, is also targeting these areas, concentrating on the direct impacts of the physical restructuring processes in the areas themselves. There appears to be a long tradition of area-based regeneration in many Western European countries, while in Central and Eastern Europe the process of regeneration started much more recently. In England, Estate Action, City Challenge, and the Single Regeneration Budget programmes are examples; there is also a debate in France about the relative merits of area-based action (Développement Social des Quartiers; Grand Projet de Ville), although conurbation-wide intervention strategies are also discussed (Contrats de Ville). Usually the results of evaluations of such area-based programmes, undertaken soon after the restructuring, are positive because of the physical upgrading of the area.
With respect to the social upgrading of an area, the results are less clear: sometimes social upgrading does take place, but often only because new residents have replaced the original inhabitants. Evaluation after a number of years often results in a more negative picture: new physical decay and new social downgrading have again become manifest. However, in addition to any drastic social or physical effects there may be in the areas under consideration, the restructuring can also have quite serious short-term or long-term effects on other areas. These effects are often neglected in evaluation studies.
Such effects need not be entirely negative, however. Some people may have moved from the area under consideration to better housing and a better environment. The income or household situations of those involved, who had to move as a result of the restructuring process, could have developed in a way that made the household ready to move anyway. However, the reverse may also be true. Highly problematic households (the long-term unemployed, anti-social tenants) may have been pushed towards the next weakest segments of the housing market. Their move to these areas will result in a reduction of the social level of the areas in which they settle.
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- Restructuring Large Housing Estates in Europe , pp. 149 - 168Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2005