Lisa Bornstein

Framing responses to post‐earthquake Haiti

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to add a new dimension to urban resilience by exploring how representations of disasters, reconstruction and human settlements are made, and how, by shaping plans and programs, they ultimately influence resilience.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on James Scotts notion of “legibility” to ask how different representations simplify complex realities and how they are transformed into plans and programs. The paper first outlines the various broad analytic lens used to examine legibility to portray post‐disaster reconstruction, drawing on international literature and policies. The paper then focuses on post‐earthquake Haiti and analyzes eight reconstruction plans and reviews design proposals submitted for the Building Back Better Communities program to explore how different stakeholders portrayed the disaster, identified the reconstruction challenges and proposed to address human settlements.Findings – Representations of the disaster, the reconstruction challeng...

A systems approach to resilience in the built environment: the case of Cuba.

Through its capacity to evoke systemic adaptation before and after disasters, resilience has become a seductive theory in disaster management. Several studies have linked the concept with systems theory; however, they have been mostly based on theoretical models with limited empirical support. The study of the Cuban model of resilience sheds light on the variables that create systemic resilience in the built environment and its relations with the social and natural environments. Cuba is vulnerable to many types of hazard, yet the countrys disaster management benefits from institutional, health and education systems that develop social capital, knowledge and other assets that support construction industry and housing development, systematic urban and regional planning, effective alerts, and evacuation plans. The Cuban political context is specific, but the study can nonetheless contribute to systemic improvements to the resilience of built environments in other contexts.

Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment (PCIA) in Community Development: A Case Study from Mozambique:

Peace and conflict impact assessment (PCIA) is a tool that potentially can improve the quality of development work in conflict zones. PCIA’s conceptual strengths and weaknesses are much debated but few studies to date have examined its use in practice. For this article, PCIA was used to structure research on conflict and peace dynamics in post-war Mozambique. The findings address both local peace-building outcomes and the usefulness of PCIA. PCIA functioned well as a tool for situational analysis, richly documenting sources of conflicts, competing claims over resources and rights, and problematic policies on the part of development organisations, government and private actors. Difficulties associated with the gathering of information stemmed from systemic power differentials between ‘researchers’ and ‘respondents’, and intensive demands on time and resources. The article concludes that PCIA, if used flexibly and in dialogue with local people, could prove a valuable complement to existing assessment tools in conflict areas.

Is gentrification all bad? Positive association between gentrification and individual’s perceived neighborhood collective efficacy in Montreal, Canada

BackgroundCollective efficacy has been associated with many health benefits at the neighborhood level. Therefore, understanding why some communities have greater collective efficacy than others is important from a public health perspective. This study examined the relationship between gentrification and collective efficacy, in Montreal Canada.MethodsA gentrification index was created using tract level median household income, proportion of the population with a bachelor’s degree, average rent, proportion of the population with low income, and proportion of the population aged 30–44. Multilevel linear regression analyses were conducted to measure the association between gentrification and individual level collective efficacy.ResultsGentrification was positively associated with collective efficacy. Gentrifiers (individuals moving into gentrifying neighborhoods) had higher collective efficacy than individuals that lived in a neighborhood that did not gentrify. Perceptions of collective efficacy of the original residents of gentrifying neighborhoods were not significantly different from the perceptions of neighborhood collective efficacy of gentrifiers.ConclusionsOur results indicate that gentrification was positively associated with perceived collective efficacy. This implies that gentrification could have beneficial health effects for individuals living in gentrifying neighborhoods.

Multilevel Informality: Migration, Spatial Organization and Control in the Toi Market in Kibera (Nairobi)

For decades, urban growth in developing countries has been examined through a formal-informal dichotomy. Conceptions of the “informal” urban development have evolved: from a temporary phenomenon to be eradicated, to a solution to unmet housing and services demands, and to a recognition of interdependent practices that overlap with the “formal” ones. Based on empirical evidence from Nairobi, Kenya, this paper examines how informality works and analyzes the governance of shared contested spaces. A long-term longitudinal case study is presented, the informal Toi Market, where data was collected between 2004 and 2016. Semi-structured interviews, focus groups, mapping, and observation from different periods provide insight into the market spatial organization, shedding light on informal-formal links, their underlying dynamics, and governance. Results indicate that urban informality consists of multilevel alliances among diverse stakeholders and is an integral part of, and not opposed to, formal urban development. Those alliances shape both horizontal and vertical structures in which community groups, external groups and institutions operate. Results further suggest that migration and the resulting dynamics of governance networks rooted in complex, and sometimes conflictual identity politics of urban dwellers, including ethnic affiliations, needs to be factored into the matrix of informal urbanism. The paper thus proposes adding the term multilevel informality to the literature on informality, suggesting the use of a concept that better reflects such complexity.

Approaches to workforce housing in London and Chicago: from targeted sectors to income-based eligibility

Abstract In many cities, people with jobs essential to daily urban life—bus drivers, teachers, police, nurses and the like—cannot afford housing in proximity to their work. Municipal efforts to counter such job–housing imbalances include targeting such workers specifically or moderate-income households, more broadly, for housing support. This article investigates and assesses housing policy for modest-income workers in two cities, Chicago and London. Based on review of documents and key informant interviews, each city’s policy context, aims, means and outcomes are analyzed. Effective strategies include working with public, private and third-sector partners to find upstream cost-effective solutions, increasing shared equity/ownership products and developing mechanisms to ensure long-term affordability of workforce housing. While each city’s policies reflect local conditions, they also are indicative of broad trends in intermediate housing policy: an increase in stakeholders involved in programme administration and delivery, a continued focus on homeownership, rising income thresholds for eligibility and a shift away from targeting employment sectors.