Marion Roberts

Marketing local identity

Abstract This paper reports on a research project into city identity, city marketing and the implications for urban design. Identity can refer to those aspects which make a place identifiable, or unique but can also refer to the way individuals or groups identify with a place. A common view today is that uniform concepts of planning and development together with the ‘commodification’ of places has led to the loss of localized identity. However, it now appears that the increased pressure on city managers to compete for investment and ‘market’ their locality has led to a renewed interest in local difference. Creating a sense of identity is essential for successfully generating economic activity and urban marketing. The act of identification of and identification with a new place and new life style are important expectations of new and existing residents. Despite this the promotional material produced by various cities is remarkably similar and demonstrates a desegregated and thematic attitude to place. The ...

Planning the night-time city

1. Introduction 2. Cities at Night 3. Visions of the Night-Time City 4. Party Cities 5. Binge Drinking Britain? 6. Regulating Consumption 7. Regulating Licensing 8. Planning and Managing the Night-Time City 9. Consumers 10. Night-Time Cities, Night-Time Futures

‘A big night out’: Young people’s drinking, social practice and spatial experience in the ‘liminoid’ zones of English night-time cities

This paper frames the debate on ‘binge’ drinking amongst young people within the perspectives of materialism and cultural geography. Drawing on the concept of social practice as interpreted through the perspective of urban design, the research investigated spatial variations in youth drinking using a case study approach to examine two urban areas in England. The study confirmed that the social practice of the ‘big night out’ has become an established feature of youth drinking. The research found the practice constituted in specialist ‘clusters’ of venues and it is argued that place-based characteristics form a significant component of its production and experience. The paper concludes with a reflection on the challenges the evidence poses to previous interpretations of leisure divisions within mainstream nightlife and to the theorisation of place-based differences in drinking milieux oriented towards young people. The implications for public policies are considered.

Sharing Space: Urban Design and Social Mixing in Mixed Income New Communities

Planning and housing policies in the UK have recently adopted the principle of developing mixed schemes, whereby a mixing of tenures stands in for a mixing of income groups. A series of recent research studies has informed the future production of mixed income new communities. This article draws on these wider studies to consider the issue of social mixing and design within developments in detail. In particular the concept of “tenure blind” development is critically investigated with regard to three mature case studies, combining design analysis with social research. Conclusions are drawn about the dangers of over-specific prescriptions towards design and the continuing relevance of urban design theory.

Hen parties: Bonding or brawling?

While the number of marriages taking place in Britain continues to decline, the hen party has become both an accepted marriage ritual and a source of controversy. In previous research we have found bar owners and town centre managers eager to discourage hen parties from their town centres and venues. Equally, in the popular press, the hen party is increasingly portrayed in comparable terms to the ‘stag do’; a night of drunken excess and embarrassing misdemeanours. This paper examines the hen party in terms of the articulation of gender, alcohol and public space. Through a wide-ranging literature survey and pilot interviews, we ask if the hen party exaggerates existing behaviours and practices, or whether it represents an entirely new, albeit limited, example of how women are using public space at night. Against the backdrop of a historical anxiety about women and public space, and growing concern about women and binge drinking, we examine the hen party as both a site of transgression, empowerment and female bonding, and as a unique opportunity to explore womens shifting attitudes to late-night culture.

Planning, urban design and the night-time city: still at the margins?

The planning system was constrained by a neo-liberalist insistence on land-use planning in the 1980s and early 1990s, thereby providing the institutional framework for deregulation of the numbers, capacities and types of licensed premises in town and city centres. This had a direct impact on levels of crime, violence and anti-social behaviour. Criminologists have criticized planners for their complicity in this process. The article argues that entertainment uses have been marginal to the social and ecological preoccupations of the planning profession. It suggests that the reintroduction of spatial planning by the New Labour government has allowed planners to reassert social and environmental objectives into their development plans and potentially to introduce a greater degree of regulatory control. The article examines the changes to the planning system and its complex relation to licensing. Finally, it questions whether this new opportunity for planners to intervene will be realized in the current economic downturn.

Quieter, Safer, Cheaper: Planning for a more inclusive evening and night-time economy

The article reflects on planning for a more inclusive evening and night-time economy. The section focused on town and city centers in the evening and later into the night. It discusses the issues of lack of participation of certain groups within the population in entertainment and cultural activities.British town and city centres have undergone a partial revival in the last decade. Flagship projects, cultural regeneration and new investment has drawn both businesses and residents back to the city centre (Nathan & Urwin, 2005). Whilst the quality of many town centres has improved considerably during the daytime hours, concerns about their ambience in the evening and at night persist. This article is focused on town and city centres in the evening and later into the night. It addresses the issues of lack of participation of certain groups within the population in entertainment and cultural activities. Through qualitative research that questions the reasons for a lack of engagement and explores understandings of what a ‘night out’ constitutes, a critique emerges of current attitudes, policies and practices towards the evening and night-time economy. This critique unsettles the aims of contemporary practice with regard to the ‘entertainment offer’ in town centres and expectations that town centres should yield the highest economic returns on their leisure activities.

The Night-time Economy And Sustainable Town Centres: Dilemmas For Local Government

The state of many British town and city centres in the evening and at night is a cause for concern. In the early 1990s, a vision was introduced for Jane Jacobs’ inspired mixed-use centres with the encouragement of a cafe culture The central quarters of many towns and cities enjoyed a brief period of ‘renaissance’, only to find that this was being rapidly undermined by a proliferation of bars, pubs and nightclubs fuelled by the British practice of youthful binge drinking. This article reports the findings of a postal survey and other secondary evidence that reveals the conflicts and tensions that lie at the heart of problems associated with British town centres during the hours of darkness. The dilemma for the local government lies in how to achieve a measure of urban sustainability in their central quarters that balances the benefits of increased economic activity with the negative externalities produced by an increase in alcohol-based night life. It is suggested that this dilemma of sustainability is not unique to England, but may be seen as a problem with an international dimension.

Urban design, central London and the ‘crisis’ 2007–2013: business as usual?

London is changing, to a breath-taking extent. Beneath this fast paced activity, new patterns are forming and divisions that had been relatively unremarked before are now becoming increasingly visible. The ‘square mile’ of the City of London, which is now identified by some dramatically tall buildings, forms a contrast to the traditional urbanism of the City of Westminster, the majority of which is covered by conservation area legislation. This paper will consider this contrast from the perspective of urban design, examining both the wider development context for these changes and the separate design policies of these two historic organisations of local government. One of the key questions to be investigated is how these changes have impacted on the character of central London as a place. Moving on from the well-rehearsed debates about London’s skyline, the paper considers the significance of urban design in the context of a global urban spatial economy. It suggests that central London faces severe dilemmas about its future if the growth scenario continues.

Re-populating the Nighttime City: Hospitality and Gender

Recent work on the nighttime economy in the UK has shifted from a focus on the consequences of excessive drinking to a consideration of new and emerging social and cultural trends. This chapter, based on research conducted over a period of several years, examines some of the factors contributing to greater diversity at night. Focusing specifically on young people’s leisure and women, we argue that British cities at night are not homogenous spaces focused only around alcohol-related leisure activities. Whilst certain practices continue to dominate, other forms of leisure, work and shopping have grown in importance. Equally, there is a corresponding trend amongst younger people to entertain in the home before venturing out. These and other trends are used as evidence to argue that the city at night is a broad and vexed social space shaped as much by economics as by changing patterns, performances and structures of gender, age and class.