Richard LeGates

Coordinated Urban-Rural Development Planning in China

Problem, research strategy, and findings: To address one of Chinas most pressing planning problems, Chengdu was designated a national pilot region for coordinated urban-rural development. Using a wide variety of sources, we describe the theory and practice of coordinated urban-rural development in Chengdu. We fill a scholarly gap by describing Chengdus practice and its implications for developing countries in relation to development and planning theory, and provide new information about the challenges of absorbing surplus rural workforce into the modern economy, equalizing urban and rural infrastructure and social services, clarifying ownership and use rights, building livable new villages, modernizing agriculture, and competing in the global economy. Takeaway for practice: All planners interested in the frontiers of urban planning practice can benefit from understanding the theoretical basis of Chengdus model and the initial successes and challenges in adapting the model to other cities. Research support: This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant #41371007), Renmin University of China (Project “985”), and the Chengdu Municipal Government.

PERI-URBAN PLANNING FOR DEVELOPING EAST ASIA: LEARNING FROM CHENGDU, CHINA AND YOGYAKARTA/KARTAMANTUL, INDONESIA

ABSTRACT: More than one hundred million people will settle in the peri-urban areas surrounding the urban areas of city regions in the developing countries of East Asia in the next decade. These areas are the epicenter of world urbanization where the greatest opportunities and most pressing problems coexist. Yet no East Asian city-region has a peri-urban plan. This article describes the nature of East Asian peri-urban areas and the peri-urbanization process occurring there today. It describes typical sites in peri-urban areas requiring remediation and which present potential problems and opportunities in the future. Drawing on the authors’ research in Chengdu, China and the Yogyakarta/Kartamantul region of Indonesia, the article describes how innovative decision-making and governance and coordinated regional plans and policies can remediate and prevent problems and capitalize on opportunities in peri-urban areas. New peri-urban village, Chengdu, China, (2013).

Competency-based UK Urban Spatial Planning Education

Abstract Spatial planning to inform actions and interventions that go well beyond traditional notions of urban planning is now an integral part of UK domestic policy making. Education in spatial planning is now required as a condition of becoming a Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) chartered town planner. All RTPI-accredited planning programmes have incorporated spatial planning education into their curricula. Unaccredited UK urban planning programmes and programmes in geography, environmental studies, and other disciplines related to the built environment are also teaching spatial planning. The RTPI does not prescribe particular content for spatial planning education and grants universities wide discretion on what to teach. While Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software and related spatial information technology are now widely used in urban planning, the RTPI does not require UK urban planning programmes to teach GIS or spatial thinking concepts from the emerging field of Geographical Information Science and Technology (GIS&T). While many urban planning programmes now make GIS&T concepts and GIS operations central features of spatial planning education, the competencies that they teach vary widely from programme to programme. This article summarises research on urban spatial planning education the author conducted for the Spatial Literacy in Teaching (SPLINT) project based at the University of Leicester.* It describes a competency-based model for UK urban spatial planning education that matches spatial information competencies against roles in spatial planning that professionals may perform on graduation. It suggests appropriate competencies at different levels of urban planning education along multiple urban planning career paths.

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC RIM: THE NEW PERI-URBANIZATION AND URBAN THEORY

An Urban Village within a City – Guangzhou, China (2011)

Learning to Be Capitalists: Entrepreneurs in Vietnam's Transition Economy

also drives apart the fortunes of the rich and poor within cities worldwide, and between cities and neglected hinterlands in Third World regions. Overall, the ability of the authors to outline the economic history of the world as it relates to cities in such a brief book is remarkable. Important concepts are laid out in clear language and in uncomplicated interpretations, but the pace is breathtaking. Rapid-fire coverage of topics in chapter 3’s 19 pages, for example, include the four Kondratieff Cycles; the nature and rise of the industrial city; industrial location theories; Marx’s and Engels’s analyses of the working class; the improvement in the conditions and the organization of labor over time; racial cleavage in the United States and the lack of class consciousness there; the urban planning reaction to growing cities in the designs of Howard and Haussman; Ford, Fordism, and Postfordism; Jane Addams and social activism on behalf of the poor, immigrants, and children; deindustrialization; offshoring; competition among Third World labor markets and the race to the bottom; reconstitution of a global working class; the deterritorialization of the corporation; and economic globalization. Within the chapter, an introduction to Ford, correction of the popular perception of his contribution to assembly line technology and mass production, the rise of Detroit and the nature of its economy, the relative affluence of the condition of that city’s working class in its heyday, and the organization of labor and the notion of full employment and government’s commitment to it are covered in two brief paragraphs. The pace often leaves the task of filling in vital details up to students or instructors. One example is the treatment of Wilson’s When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor (Vintage, 1997), the sum total of which reads, “William Julius Wilson (1996) charts the effects of such employment loss on minority neighborhoods in such cities as Chicago, where deindustrialization impacts significantly on African-American urban communities” (p. 40). Alternatively, the one-paragraph summary of the shift from “push” or manufacturing-dominated economies to the power of “pull” agents like Wal-Mart to dictate the terms and location of production factors is clear and concise, and this clarity characterizes the vast majority of the passages that comprise the book. As such, it serves the purpose of providing a brief introductory overview to the important issues in urban and economic change to undergraduates and a framework of topics for instructors who are putting together courses around those themes.

1977 Act Changes Community Development Block Grant Program

Abstract Note: At the time of the August congressional recess the conference committee for the Housing and Community Development Act of 1977 had reached con-census on major features of the legislation, but re-mained deadlocked over a Senate proposed “impaction adjustment” to the CDBG funding distribution for-mula to provide additional funds for communities with high concentrations of older housing units. Funds for the impaction adjustment would come from the authorizations provided for a supplemental urban development action grant (UDAG) program. It is virtually certain that the issue will be resolved and that Community Development legislation will be signed into law in the early fall. Based upon the House and Senate bills, the major features of the A c t are apparent at this time. Readers should check the accuracy of this report for possible changes in conference and/or floor amendment prior to final passage.