2. Outline of talk
Outline of talk
How do we understand growth?
g
• Key concepts
– Infrastructures of daily life
y
– Sustainable degrowth
– Efficiencies of sharing
– Participation and co‐creation
• Metaphors
p
– Desire lines
– Urban imaginations
• Expressions/ examples
• Concluding remarks
3. My approach
My approach
• Interdependent spheres of restructuring
(housing, employment, gender relations);
everyday dilemmas of work/life balance
• Time‐space coordination (not only who does
what, where, when, but non‐instrumental (e.g.
as mutuality, stewardship)
• Recent shift from absence of ‘balance’ to
motivations and intentions of excluded
residents to seek a ‘better future’ via ‘utopian
method of thinking’‐ a journey of
h d f hi ki ’ j f
experimentation and yearning.
4. ( Soft ) Infrastructures of Daily Life
(‘Soft’) Infrastructures of Daily Life
• I i i f
Inspiration for an integrated approach; originally a Nordic
i d h i i ll N di
feminist housing and urban design project ‘New Everyday Life’
(Gullestad 1991).
• The vision of a more harmonious, creative and just society in
which children’s and women’s needs and the social
reproduction of all people and natures are valued as central
reproduction of all people and natures are valued as central
motives for action (and policy).
• Crucially, the infrastructure of daily life is the social fabric that
lubricates collective responsibility and local networks of
lubricates collective responsibility and local networks of
reciprocity and exchange (diverse economies).
• Progressive planning ‘manifestoes’ including EuroFEM (Booth
and Gilroy 1999).
d Gil 1999)
• Developments in participatory and collaborative planning
(
(Horrelli et al. 1998; Healey 1997; Jarvis 2009).
; y ; )
5. How do we understand urban growth?
Two extremes
• (i)
(i) Orthodox ‘celebration’ (growth machine)
h d ‘ l b i ’( h hi )
– Measured in terms of jobs and investment, global
competitiveness and a culture and quality of life
that attracts and retains skilled workers.
– Coincides with hyper‐modern time‐space
coordination and labour‐saving technologies that
tend to stretch‐out and time‐shift multiple
t d t t t h t d ti hift lti l
commitments more energy intensively
– N t li
Naturalises marketised h
k ti d household livelihood and
h ld li lih d d
‘runaway’ consumption (Amin and Thrift 2005)
6. Opposing the ‘celebration’ of growth:
sustainable de‐growth
• (ii)
(ii) negative, unintended consequences
i i d d
– Goal of sufficiency; standards of living can be
maintained and improved through greater resource
i t i d di d th h t
efficiency.
– An ‘ethic of care’ ‐ for social justice (addressing
An ethic of care for social justice (addressing
inequality within society and between generations)
and ecological sustainability.
g y
– Distinguish between unplanned de‐growth (recession)
and a voluntary, smooth and equitable transition to a
regime of lower production and consumption.
7. Efficiencies of sharing
Efficiencies of sharing
• G
Growth vs D
th De‐growth binary too simple – more
th bi t i l
complex picture of competing interests
– e.g. Norway, practical, home‐centred idea of egalitarian
e.g. Norway, practical, home centred idea of egalitarian
individualism combined with very high rate of one‐person
households.
• Assumed ‘economy of scale’ in ‘smart growth’ urban
Assumed ‘economy of scale’ in ‘smart‐growth’ urban
re‐development (energy savings) undermined by
consumption/debt cultures of privacy and property.
p / p y p p y
• Sharing is socially and spatially constructed and
influenced to a considerable extent by
presence/absence of ownership; suggests that
/ b f hi t th t
‘unplanned’ autonomous public spaces (the street)
help incubate vitality and resilience – via sharing.
p y g
8. Urban imaginations
• Addressing the loss of a sense of collective
responsibility and shared endeavour
p y
• Consider the landscape of social interaction and
collaboration – civil society, ‘soft’ infrastructure.
• R lib i
Recalibration evident in local efforts to establish
id i l l ff bli h
and promote distinctiveness of place, e.g. slow
food, cittaslow (slow cities), post‐material social
( ) p
movements of simple living (focus on ‘being and
doing’ rather than ‘possessing’).
– The Economics of Happiness, documentary by Helena
The Economics of Happiness, documentary by Helena
Norberg‐Hodge for ISEC.
– Illich (1973: 12) ‘conviviality’ the opposite of global,
p y y
industrial productivity. The ‘tools’ of conviviality facilitate
‘autonomous and creative engagement among persons
and between people and their environment’.
9. How might we re‐imagine an alternative pattern
of growth? Desire lines....
Used as a metaphor for the hazards of
p
speculative development; unmet
desire to create homes that are nodes
in a community fabric.
in a community fabric
10. Participation and co‐creation
Participation and co creation
• Distinction to be made
Distinction to be made
between planning for
people, whether designed
people whether designed
by experts or in
consultation with end‐user,
consultation with end user
and planning with people;
genuinely participatory,
genuinely participatory
• co‐creative, joint‐venture
or community‐led
i l d
• The Great North Build
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_d
etailpage&v=QudbFaYulf8
11. Almere O
Al Oosterwold, The
ld Th
Netherlands
a New Town entirely built on reclaimed
land where sites are provided for the
construction of individually designed
homes
12. Other community‐led innovations
Other community led innovations
• Ithaca Eco‐village Hockerton Earth Sheltered
(cohousing) USA Housing Project, UK
low‐impact eco‐villages;
Innovations in shared housing (older
I ti i h d h i ( ld
home‐owners sharing with younger
tenant carers);
Senior and inter‐generational
Senior and inter generational
cohousing;
New forms of mutual home ownership.
14. Concluding remarks
Concluding remarks
• from whose perspective are ‘growth’,
p p g ,
‘competitiveness’ and ‘liveability’ understood?
• Strong economies can be hostile environments
Strong economies can be hostile environments
for those in poor health, those caring for
dependents, or managing on a low income.
dependents, or managing on a low income.
• Inequalities between households; a web of
resources and multiple economies; Bourdieu s
resources and multiple economies; Bourdieu’s
‘logic of the situation’.
• compelling arguments for engaging in a more
compelling arguments for engaging in a more
imaginative review of how people might live and
work differently in the future.
work differently in the future
