Declan Redmond

The role of 'hard' and 'soft' factors for accommodating creative knowledge : insights from Dublin's 'creative class'

Abstract The idea of the creative knowledge city has received considerable attention in the last number of years, not only in the academic literature but also from urban policymakers. Much of the attention has centred on the ‘creative class’ thesis and its relevance for regional economic growth. By taking the thesis at face value, this paper empirically analyses the extent to which Dublins creative knowledge workers conform or otherwise to the characteristics of the ‘creative class’. Thus, we investigate the satisfaction of Dublins creative knowledge workers with the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ factors associated with the citys living environment. We also analyse the most important reasons attracting creative knowledge workers to the Dublin region. In addition, the paper also explores the mobility of Dublins creative knowledge workers within the context of locational and workplace mobility. The results show that workers within the creative knowledge class are attracted to Dublin on the basis of classic factors:...

Social Housing Regeneration and the Creation of Sustainable Communities in Dublin

Abstract In the past decade many social housing flat (apartment) complexes in Dublin have undergone some form of regeneration, from minor refurbishment to complete demolition and redevelopment. The context and impetus for such widespread regeneration has been the political articulation that social housing in Ireland, and especially in Dublin, is dysfunctional and unsustainable. It is contended, primarily on the basis of tenure mix arguments, that regeneration will lead to longterm social and environmental sustainability. Consequently, a number of inner city social housing complexes are currently subject to regeneration that involves their demolition and redevelopment as mixed-tenure estates through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) methods. This represents a new social and economic model of regeneration, albeit one which has generated considerable controversy. The process of regeneration has, for example, been criticised as lacking any meaningful community participation, with the mechanisms of the redevelopment process making it difficult for the community to influence the process. More generally, the creation of mixed tenure estates has been criticised as leading to a diminution of social housing in Dublin, as the social housing component in these estates has been significantly reduced. On the positive side, however, it has been argued that this model of social mixing will lead to sustainable regeneration. This paper, which is partly based on ongoing research of some case study estates in Dublin, examines and reflects on the issues of sustainable regeneration and the creation of sustainable communities.

Active Citizenship and Local Representational Politics in Twenty-First Century Ireland: The Role of Residents Groups within Dublin's Planning Arena

This paper explores the relationship between active citizenship at a local level and the workings of local government, focusing on urban planning processes in the Greater Dublin Area, Ireland. The paper argues that to fully understand the role of community actors within urban planning, there is a need to look beyond the institutions of planning and formal avenues of decision-making to examine the overlapping, disorganized and informal practices that are increasingly mobilized to influence planning outcomes. We argue that a key motivation for community action within our case study areas relates to the perceived failure in traditional representative democracy in managing rapid urban growth and addressing quality of life concerns of local residents. Rather than collaborate with the state in organized planning arenas, community actors play a key role in informal politics both outside and against the state, leading to tensions between state efforts to promote active citizenship and the resultant community action.

The Extent of the Mortgage Crisis in Ireland and Policy Responses

From the mid-1990s, Ireland experienced a property bubble, fuelled by deregulation in the banking sector and government commitment to expanding home ownership. However, since 2007, the situation has dramatically reversed. The banking system and property market have collapsed and pushed the Irish state into insolvency. National house prices have fallen by 50 per cent from the peak in 2007, whereas incomes have contracted and the unemployment rate has increased. This has produced a serious situation regarding negative equity and mortgage arrears, a problem highlighted by the former U.S. President Bill Clinton on a visit to Ireland in 2011. This paper examines government responses to the mortgage crisis, particularly their emphasis on mortgage forbearance and reform of Irelands bankruptcy legislation. An overview of the drivers of the bubble and the extent of negative equity and arrears is provided firstly. In conclusion, the paper reflects upon the implications of the crisis for the homeownership model that Ireland has followed for the last two decades.

Uneven Development, City Governance, and Urban Change—Unpacking the Global-Local Nexus in Dublin’s Inner City

The city can be read as the nexus of global change and daily life—a site of contestation in the flux of economic imperatives, urban policymaking, and local needs and values. Just as importantly, the key general processes at work—economic restructuring, flows of capital through the built environment, and the like—have proceeded most unevenly, as reflected in local problems of job loss, displacement, poverty, and a whole range of attendant urban struggles and social tensions. In particular, the processes of uneven development and globalization in the city have generated new and complex patterns of growth and inequality, raising important analytical and policy challenges. For example, recent years have seen the realignment of the state and the evolution of new forms of urban governance under conditions of flexible production, international competition, mobile investment, the restructuring of global commodity chains, and emergent consumption trends and lifestyle changes. All of these issues are relevant across different regions worldwide and at different points on the global urban hierarchy (from so-called world cities to “ordinary” cities), and thus remain the subject of important theoretical and political debates. Specifically, we are faced with conceptual and empirical questions about the processes and contradictions of this current period of flux, as well as practical questions about how societies and states should most effectively deal with the resultant social tensions and economic challenges.

Competing discourses of built heritage: lay values in Irish conservation planning

Abstract Built heritage conservation has traditionally been shaped by professionals through an ‘authorised heritage discourse’, emphasising expert knowledge and skills, universal value, a hierarchy of significance, and protecting the authenticity of tangible assets. However, while the purpose of built heritage conservation is widely recognised to be broad, encompassing cultural, social and economic benefits, it takes place in the presence, and on behalf, of a wider public whose values and priorities may differ starkly from those of heritage power-players. Drawing on the perspectives of a range of built heritage actors in three small towns in Ireland, this paper contributes to these debates, exploring the competing values and priorities embedded within lay discourses of heritage. Based on critical discourse analysis of interviews with local actors, the paper identifies that collected memory and local place distinctiveness, contributing to a sense of local identity, are of central importance in how non-experts construct their understanding of built heritage. In the Irish context, this is particularly important in understanding social and cultural statutory categories of heritage interest. The paper concludes on the implications for policy and practice and, in particular, the need to more effectively take account of non-expert values and priorities in heritage and conservation decision-making.

“We’re just existing, not living!” Mortgage stress and the concealed costs of coping with crisis

Abstract Following the financial crisis, an extensive literature has examined the vulnerabilities facing mortgagors in default and foreclosure. However, in addition to these “overt casualties” of the crash, many households are struggling to meet their mortgage payments by enduring severe cutbacks to their quality of life. The experiences of these “unrevealed casualties” of the financial crisis and the coping strategies they employ to respond to mortgage stress remain under-explored. Drawing on survey data of Irish mortgagors (n = 433), this paper examines the impacts of mortgage stress upon quality of life and mortgagors’ coping strategies to respond to their financial difficulties. The findings suggest that mortgage stress affects a broader range of households than previously considered; mortgage stressed households adopt a range of expenditure, employment, finance and housing-related responses; and more punitive responses correlate with greater mortgage stress levels, thereby providing a fuller account of the real cost of coping with the crisis impacts.

Social housing regeneration in Dublin: market-based regeneration and the creation of sustainable communities

A number of social housing flat complexes in the inner city of Dublin have been selected to be demolished and redeveloped as mixed tenure neighbourhoods using public–private partnership mechanisms. Driven in part by an economic rationale, this policy also seeks to regenerate these estates as mixed or integrated communities, with the assumption being that the existing estates are exemplars of unsustainable communities. This article analyses the rationales used to regenerate these areas, in particular focussing on the emerging central government policy of developing sustainable communities. The article argues that delivering a sustainable community is neither a straightforward nor an easy process, particularly for the residents of the social housing estates being regenerated. In seeking to develop mixed and balanced communities through this market-based method, the existing social housing tenants are faced with a complex series of negotiations with regard to the physical and social regeneration of their estates. The article, using ongoing research, analyses the ways in which the existing communities have to negotiate the process of regeneration and the risks that are inherent in a market-led model of regeneration.

Defining "official" built heritage discourses within the Irish planning framework: insights from conservation planning as social practice.

Abstract Conservation of built heritage is a key planning process and goal which shapes urban development outcomes across European cities. In Ireland, conservation of the built heritage is a key part of the planning framework, albeit one that is, in comparative terms, only recently established. While it is widely recognized that the underlying rationale for conservation of built heritage varies considerably (from cultural priorities to place marketing), the literature suggests that heritage and conservation professionals perform a key role in controlling decision-making through an official or “authorized” heritage discourse (AHD), emphasizing expert values and knowledge and based around selective heritage storylines often reflecting elite tastes. Drawing on policy and practice in Ireland, in this paper, we contribute to these debates by further unpacking the AHD, exploring tensions within the heritage policy elite through examination of competing views and representations relating to the purpose of built heritage protection. Based on a discourse analysis following interviews with key national actors, we identify two key narratives—a “museum-curatorial” discourse and an “inclusive heritage” discourse—which in turn frame conservation practices. We argue that subtle variations of heritage meanings have the potential to either reproduce (museum-curatorial discourse) or challenge (inclusive heritage discourse) conventional modes of practice, particularly relating to the relationship between built heritage and identity and the role of public engagement.

Setting the Scene: Transformations in Irish Housing

For a nation somewhat obsessed with property and property rights it is surprising that there has been a comparative dearth of published material on the system of housing provision and housing policy in Ireland, whereas in most other western European countries, particularly the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, sophisticated housing research infrastructures have been developed, not only in the universities but also in national and local government and in non-governmental sectors. Recently this gap in publication has started to be filled. For example, Norris and Winston (2004) have produced a comprehensive overview of Irish housing policy developments over the past decade, while in late 2004 the National Economic and Social Council (2004) published an analysis of housing policy with a particular focus on affordability and land policy. Despite these publications, however, it is still true to say that the amount of original primary research on housing issues is meagre and unbalanced. We know, for example, a good deal about social housing and the tenants who live in this sector (Fahey, 1999), which accounts for less that 10 per cent of all housing, but our in-depth knowledge of the owner-occupied sector, which accounts for 80 per cent of all housing, is paltry in comparison. This lack of information and analysis is anomalous in view of the fact that since the early 1990s housing has become one of the central economic, social and environmental issues in Ireland. This centrality stems directly from the importance of housing in providing basic shelter and accommodation, its role as a home, its role as a financial investment, its role in economic development and its role in shaping our urban and rural environment. While these are general attributes, they have been brought into even greater prominence in the past decade by the extraordinary surge in housing output across the state, generated by the economic boom and population growth. Not only have our urban centres