By studying a single in-depth case study, the regeneration of the Colville Estate, this dissertation aims to assess whether local councillors are relevant in representing local interest and to explore the ways in which local representatives represent local interest in contemporary urban regeneration projects, given the context of complex governance structures and devolved powers. The investigation describes relevance as whether councillors are interested, whether they are willing and whether they are capable of representing local interests.

This dissertation explores how the recent revision to the NPPF, which advocates the public disclosure of unreacted development viability assessments, can enable both the inclusion of non-technical expertise in viability modelling and effective public participation in related decision-making. The research focuses on the redevelopment of the Greenwich Peninsula; identifying the structure of urban governance and the stakeholders consulted in viability modelling.

Course materials from the Development and Planning in African Cities free online course delivered on the FutureLearn platform: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/african-cities/.

Steps from the third week of Development and Planning in African Cities, a FutureLearn course jointly delivered by UCL and Njala University.

Monterrey, Mexico is a city that faces air pollution and congestion crisis due to a heavy reliance on private motorised mobility. The purpose of this paper is to show that governance plays a significant role in this issue, as the provision of mobility is fragmented between different levels of government and institutions that do not collaborate effectively. This research focuses on four topics, from a governance perspective: organisational structure, policy integration, finance and urban integration. It uses three progressive cities as case studies: Medellin, London and Singapore. These were selected as they have achieved a form of integration in their transport system and represent different political and cultural contexts. Documental research and semi-structured interviews were conducted in each city to understand their current framework and a coding matrix was created to perform a content analysis of the interviews. Results show that governance does impact significantly the ability of a city to pursue sustainable mobility. Progressive cities have integrated institutions that oversee planning, implementation, administration and monitoring of mobility, where Monterrey has these attributions fragmented in at least six organisations that scarcely collaborate. These cities have strong local plans that direct strategies and projects and support collaboration between agencies, level of governments and stakeholders. In Monterrey, the last metropolitan plan is outdated and has no integrating powers. Financing in Monterrey is not an issue of the number of resources, but how effectively they are being used. And finally, urban integration to mobility is being done through plans and policy in progressive cities but mostly treated separately in Monterrey. The paper concludes with a framework proposal for Monterrey, embedded in its current context, that would help the city overcome its issues. Further detailing would be needed for this framework to be realistically applied, but it is well-grounded on evidence.

Local climate action has been placed in the centre of the climate change mitigation strategies globally and, thus, the need to understand it is increasing. Consequently, there has been a growing literature examining the capacity of local climate action to effectively contributing to reducing Greenhouse gas emissions committed by national governments to the international climate regime, especially in Western countries. However, little attention has been placed in the Global South context. This dissertation aims to examine the local climate action in a southern context, to determine how mitigation measures undertaken by local governments in the Santiago Metropolitan Region contribute to Chilean commitments.Based on governance literature, specifically a Multi-level governance framework, the study provides a comprehensive overview of the local climate action in the region. Employing mainly primary data and a mix of quantitative and qualitative, the dissertation analyses the case study and review the main challenges of local climate action in the country. Analysis of the data demonstrated that Chilean local climate action needs to strengthen its capacities to effectively contributing to the mitigation targets committed. The results suggest that local action faces several challenges that need to be overcome, grouped in four areas: resources, equity, measurements and strategic planning. Further research is required to examine technical aspects of mitigation measures and the application of indicators, as well as incorporate the rest of the municipalities of the country.

In Colombia, informal settlements are a pressing planning issue, mostly due to the lack of infrastructure, public transportation, public services and public realm. However, in an effort to improve life-quality and reduce segregation from formal areas, governments have decided to intervene on slums through a wide range of strategies. The most successful one has been the so-called ‘social urbanism’ strategy, in which authorities designed and planned a major transport infrastructure project and that is linked to a comprehensive intervention that incorporates new social infrastructure and public spaces. Nevertheless, in the process of delivering new public realm, policy-makers’ objectives and community aspirations may differ, leading to a disconnection between top-down policies and traditions, cultural rules, and social values. As a result, activities carried out on open spaces vary from that were expected to take place initially. This paper shows the impact that the gap between top-down policies and bottom-up practices have on the everyday use of public spaces. Moreover, it recommends broadening the scope when evaluating ‘social urbanism’ projects and improving participatory processes in order to design spaces that fulfill local needs.

Over the course of the last 30 years, changes in governance trends have led to a growing opportunity for citizen participation in decision-making at the level of local government. The 2011 Localism Act enshrined this in planning policy. However, the voluntary uptake of participatory planning mechanisms has been mixed at best. Areas with wealthier communities with more resources have been more likely to see these opportunities realised in a way they are not in areas with less affluent communities. UK planning policy does not specify the means by which local authorities should engage their communities but social infrastructure is implicated as a possible way to do this. This dissertation will therefore explore the potential contribution social infrastructure could make to empowering communities to play a more active role in the planning system. Community empowerment will be defined by using the concept of social capital and Sen’s capabilities approach. There has been considerable interest in libraries and participatory culture spaces since the start of the 21st century for their ability to generate social capital and broaden communities’ capabilities. This dissertation will look at two examples from East London. The first being Every One Every Day, the UK’s biggest participation scheme, in Barking & Dagenham and the second being the Idea Stores, a chain of modernised libraries, in Tower Hamlets. These examples will be used to make the case for a new type of social infrastructure that can empower communities and contribute to achieving participatory planning in line with the evolution of governance and recommendations in current planning policy. The findings from this study suggest that participatory culture spaces and libraries sit among wider networks of social infrastructure that, when combined, facilitate the social life and political power of communities across the UK to a greater or lesser degree.

The purpose of this dissertation is to clarify the role of institutions for the development of car sharing services. Sustainable mobility has gained reasonable relevance in the past decade as it represents a fundamental aspect necessary for the preservation of the environment and for the improvement of the quality of life within urban centres. The use of private vehicles within cities has created numerous issues in terms of pollution and space consumption. The rise of the sharing economy and technological innovations have allowed the spread of new forms of shared mobility that aim at reducing private vehicle ownership. Despite the growing body of work produced by academics regarding the positive externalities that car sharing has on reducing emissions, traffic congestion and car ownership, the role of institutions as enablers and facilitators for the development of these services has remained widely unexplored. Following the development of a theoretical framework that draws on the work of academics that focused on the role of institutors, urban governance, and policy, the paper progresses by presenting four European case studies: London, Berlin, Rome and Milan. By identifying the key institutions and organizations that affect the development of car sharing, we then progress in listing and analysing the key policies and strategic plans that affect these services in each city. The analysis is supported by interviews carried out with eight experts that work in the sector. We then proceed in discussing and concluding that institutions play a central role in facilitating and directing the development of car sharing.

Abstract With the process of urbanisation, the world faces a conflict between growing urban populations and limited land. A large number of literatures describe many social problems caused by traditional property-led and large-scale demolition regeneration. As a result, urban regeneration is shifting towards sustainable development, where social sustainability is an emerging area of urban planning policy and practice. In this context, the trend of urban regeneration in China is micro regeneratio (weigaizao), which emphasises small-scale in-situ redevelopment and community vibrancy rather than creating land profits. This dissertation examines this micro regeneration approach and governance model behind it by taking the Beijing Baitasi Historical District (BHD) as an example, and analyses how the governance model can achieve social sustainability. The study used a qualitative approach to interview 10 stakeholders involved in the regeneration and a quantitative approach to conduct a questionnaire survey among 138 residents. The results show that the BHD regeneration has developed a coordinated government-market-resident governance structure which is based on a government-dominated property rights structure, which reflects the role of the state. The state uses land development models, national strategic objectives and project-oriented governance to implement strategies aimed at social sustainability. Not only that, micro regeneration has an initial character of social sustainability. By government dominance as the guarantee, commercialisation as the path, and people’s rights and power as the basis can the governance structure fulfil the objectives of social sustainability. The challenges are the dominance of the government being the obstacles to commercialisation, residents’ lacking direct and diverse channels for feedback and needs, and the complex property right structure. These findings provide lessons for the future urban regeneration in China.