This is a collaborative research program between English Partnerships and CUPS. The program is led by Professor Paul Syms, former National Brownfield Strategy Director for English Partnerships and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Urban Policy Studies (CUPS). Since November 2007 the post-doctoral researcher Andreas Schulze Bäing has been working on this project as a member of CUPS.

The reuse of brownfield land has emerged as an important issue for planning and urban regeneration in recent years. The Urban Task Force report and the subsequent Urban White Paper led to a number of measures aimed at increasing the share of previously developed land reused with a focus on housing development. These were also included in the recently published National Brownfield Strategy by English Partnerships, now the Homes and Communities Agency. In qualitative terms, there is wide ranging agreement amongst policy actors that focusing new development on brownfield land, and devoting resources to help in generating developable sites, should be a key element of contemporary urban regeneration. Beyond this it is seen as reducing the extent of green field development and extent of urban sprawl, hence contributing to the established urban containment policy in England. In quantitative terms these policies have had marked impact. The goal of providing 60% of new housing on previously developed land by 2008 [1] was exceeded, and by 2005 had risen to 77% [2].

While the knowledge about the location, physical features and economic prospects of previously developed land in England is extensive, the knowledge about the social dimension of brownfield reuse is quite limited. Yet this is an important aspect as one of the main aims of regeneration policy in recent years has been to stabilise and create sustainable communities [3]. Hence one major strand of this project is to assess the impact that the reuse of brownfield land has had in recent years on social change both on the sites that have been reused and in adjacent neighbourhoods.

The second strand of the project is to investigate those sites that have been vacant for a long time, also referred to as hardcore brownfield land. The project aims at understanding the impact that those sites have on adjacent neighbourhoods.  Beyond this the project also investigates alternative forms of reuse and management of these sites. This includes the potential role of temporal uses and/or of soft end uses.

The focus of the project is on England but part of the research will also involve a comparison to brownfield policy and practice in other European countries.

 

Contact details:

Dr Andreas Schulze Bäing
Tel: 0161 306 6880
Fax: 0161 306 6677
Email: Andreas.SchulzeBaing@manchester.ac.uk

Professor Paul Syms
Email: Paul.Syms@manchester.ac.uk

Centre for Urban Policy Studies
Arthur Lewis Building (Room 1.033)
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL

References:
1. DETR (1998) Planning for Communities of the Future. CM 3885. London: HMSO
2. DCLG (2007) Land Use Change in England: Residential Development to 2006, London: DCLG
3. e.g. Colomb C. (2007) Unpacking New Labour's 'urban renaissance' agenda: towards a socially sustainable reurbanization of British cities?, Planning Practice & Research, 22: 1-24; Lees L. (2003) Visions of 'urban renaissance': the Urban Task Force report and the Urban White Paper, in Imrie R. and Raco M. (eds) Urban Renaissance? New Labour, community and urban policy, Policy Press: Bristol, pp.61-82

In 1964 Professor Walter Isard, founder of the Regional Science Association, was invited to the London School of Economics where he spoke on ‘The International Situation in Regional Science’. The visit prompted a diverse group of British academic and practitioners - economists, sociologists, political scientists, geographers, engineers, architects and town planners - to set up their own organisation, the Regional Studies Association.

Michael Wise (1989) has provided a definitive account of the pre-history of the Association, tracing the intellectual networks of its founding members and the epistemological origins of their regionalism in the work of Mumford, Geddes and Le Play. Like the Regional Science Association founded a decade earlier at the University of Pennsylvania, the British initiative was a reaction against the neglect of space within mainstream post-war social science. Unlike its U.S. counterpart it was not just a scientific society but aimed at knowledge transfer and a policy-shaping role, at first within the United Kingdom, and later on a European scale.

Both organisations continue to flourish, but whereas the Regional Science Association International has attracted a healthy critical bibliography, no scholarly study has ever been made of the Regional Studies Association. This project will address this gap in the literature.

The project will take up the story where Wise left off, covering the Association’s growth and development since 1965, its adaptation to the changing knowledge environment, and the pursuit of its two charitable objects, “to promote education in the field of regional studies (those studies which relate to the economic, physical and sociological problems of development in major areas) by the exchange of ideas and information” and “to stimulate and aid studies and research into regional planning, development and functions and to disseminate the results of such research”.

Conceptual framework:

The conceptual framework for this project has two dimensions. First, it contributes to the history of science through a case study of a learned society, situated within the literature on other scientific societies and their roles in reinforcing and sustaining intellectual identity within and across discipline boundaries. The dissemination role of learned society journals is an important factor, especially in the turbulence of the digital publishing revolution. So too is the charity trusteeship of learned societies’ governing bodies, and their responsibility for the economic fortunes of these non-profit voluntary organisations. Second, the study will be contextualised within the changing regional question in an era of globalisation and European integration. Over the lifetime of the organisation the meaning of its charitable objects - ‘regional planning, development and functions’ - has changed fundamentally, as have the underlying disciplines of ‘regional studies’: economics, geography, spatial economic analysis and political science.

The research will:

• build a systematic empirical profile, over four decades, of the Association’s changing membership, financing, management structures, meetings activities and information provision
• interview leading participants from all phases of the Association’s history, particularly its early years and at major turning points - internationalisation decisions, the switch to online publication of  journal, the launch of a second journal, commissioning of special reports and book series, planning of international conferences, office relocation, collaborations and joint ventures
• through interviews and documentary analysis, develop a qualitative understanding of the changing significance of regional studies/science as a field of knowledge and a network of research and practice
• provide a critical appreciation of the Association’s strategies of maintenance and growth in a context of radical transformation in its subject matter and its institutional context.

Primary sources:

• the Association’s historical archive, located in BLPES
• associated papers in private collections
• documentation in the Association’s office in Seaford
• interviews with key members and contributors from all stages of its history
• interviews with external observers in cognate fields, e.g. regional science
• contributor and content profiles of the Association’s newsletter Regions and its two journals Regional Studies and Spatial Economic Analysis

As well as archival research, James will be seeking opportunities to talk to many members of the Association and would be pleased to hear from any member wishing to share their any experiences, memories or documents they may have in relation to the project. You can contact James via post or e-mail:

James Hopkins
PhD Research Student
School of Environment and Development
The University of Manchester
1st Floor, Arthur Lewis Building
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL

James.hopkins@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk