Outline

 Urban Renewal

 The right to the city

 Sociological aspects of housing research

 Research methods

 Quantitative and

 Qualitative
 Urban Renewal
The "slum clearance" program (urban redevelopment) launched by
the federal Housing Act of 1949

later model cities programs were perhaps the classic place-based policies.
 sought to eradicate poverty by radically changing the places where poverty
most strongly persisted.
 a top-down planning vision(federal bulldozer)

 little attention to those living in the communities,

The housing Act of 1954 instituted the policy of “urban renewal,”

 stressed not clearance but enforcement of building codes and
 rehabilitation of substandard buildings.
 Con…
Instead of public housing, it emphasized privately built housing for

low-income and displaced families.

originated in local citizens’ movements to use code enforcement and rehabilitation to

stabilize and regenerate physically deteriorating neighborhoods

Policies that focus more on individuals in poverty and on preserving
existing communities (1950)
Housing policy (1960)
Began to move from public housing to public-private partnerships that
provided incentives for private owners to build and operate subsidized
housing,
 a model that was reinvented in late 1980 through
 Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program
 Con…
In the 1990s, the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing (MTO)
 provides funds to demolish and revitalize the most severely
distressed public housing,
 to replace pockets of extreme poverty with mixed-income
communities designed with a new-urbanist spirit
Three types of urban renewal activity
Continuing market-led activity of adapting urban areas to the changing
needs and demands of capital,
State social expenditure to ensure social harmony and well-being
(The renewal of housing and related social facilities),
State social physical capital investment and state regulation to facilitate
profitable private sector property development and redevelopment
(provision of utilities, public transport networks…).
 Con…
Trends to the understanding of the evolution of urban renewal;
The key role played by transport improvements in changing,
 Regional economic structures, land use patterns,

 Facilitating rising housing standards,

The consequences
 Manufacturing decline and service sector growth in changing the

nature of demand for land and buildings,

The increasing difference between central and peripheral regions

 economic conditions under which urban renewal is taking place

 with rapidly rising demand for urban space

 Con…
Urban renewal is clearly
 a multi-faceted and complex process requires variety and subtlety
in policy responses.
Such responses need to be based upon a
 multi-disciplinary understanding of the social and economic forces

affecting urban areas,

 the nature of government and organizations, and

 the physical nature of towns and cities.

Both study of urban renewal and the practice of intervention is a team

effort based upon many skills.

 Con…
There are a number of major questions and issues in urban renewal that deserve
further consideration, investigation, and debate,
 Multi-disciplinary nature of the study of urban renewal,

The need for variety in urban renewal policy and training for these activities,

the effects of urban renewal on energy use, pollution, and environmental

quality,
the importance and benefits of community participation in urban renewal,
 Con…
 the goals of urban design and ways in which they might be achieved, and

 the need for a strategic level of urban renewal policy instruments.

Lessons

Historical evolution and current practice of urban renewal and from

management theory
 stresses the importance and advantages of local community

participation in renewal decisions.

 Housing enablement in developing countries
Emphasis is shifting from state provision towards facilitation of private

sector participation in housing development,

Enablement is the productive relevance of human settlements to

economic development, and

Linking of the roles of government, markets and the informal groups

and organizations.
 Con…
The global strategy to shelter,
Encourages governments to concentrate on facilitating access to land,

finance, infrastructure and services,

 Removal of restrictive regulations,

 Introduction of realistic building and land use regulations,

 strengthen institutional frameworks that foster people's

participation in the housing process.

 Con…
Sustainability in the housing sector;
The involvement of the community in all steps

(planning, constructing and maintaining planned improvement),

Insuring that those who build housing, have access to good quality

building materials (self-builders or private sector firms),

 building standards,

The realm of housing finance, and

Ensure the availability of adequate land for residential construction

at a price that householders can afford.
 Con…

Housing policymakers must think outside of their traditional silo,

Construct more holistic initiatives that link with other social policy silos

(transportation, health, employment training, criminal justice),

Advancing this agenda will require enhanced capacity for

collaboration and governance at all levels.

 Housing policies in Ethiopia
The housing market operating in free market principles (pre – 1975)

Landlords leasing urban land and

Constructing residential houses to tenants, and

No restriction to sell and buy houses.

Majority of the urban population live in highly crowded dwelling

 Built and owned by small scale land lords

 Con…
Nationalization
Urban land, high rise apartments and office buildings and

Extra houses without compensation

Direct government involvement in the sphere of housing provision

Complete control of the housing market and encouraged self-provision as

the main form of housing supply

Condominium housing regulation in 2003

Reduce its horizontal expansion and

To enhance the economic use of serviced land

 The right to the city
Central to housing urban design knowledge is the concept of the right to the

city.
Urban space is central to the right to the city.

The city is holistic, calling attention to the physical context and social relations.

The right to the city;

Right to difference and the right to information,

Make more practical the rights of the citizen, user of multiple services,

The right of users to make known their ideas on the space and time of their
 The right to the city movement
Seen not as a completed solution to current problems, but as an opening

to a new urban politics (urban politics of the inhabitant)

For inclusion in the city as it exists currently, not for a transformation of the
existing city,
Stresses the need to restructure the power relations (production of urban space)
A right to participate in the decisions that produce urban space,

 The ability of urban dwellers to participate in decisions,

The place of decision-making away from the state and toward

urban inhabitants.
 Con…
This right signifies the central role of citizens in decisions contributing to the
production of urban space
decentralized, direct democracy could be realized.

Access to the resources of the city for all segments of the population,

A political claim;
social justice, for social change,

For the realization of the potential that technological and

human advances had made possible

Demand for a fair and equitable distribution of urban resources,
 Con…
A right to redistribution, not for all humans, but for those deprived of it

and in need of it.

To appropriation, a city that meets the needs of its inhabitants and the

production of spaces that support a dignified and meaningful life.

The city as a built environment, as physical space,

As a call for designing and running a better city,

A more beautiful city, and

Healthier and more environmentally sustainable city.

 Con…
it is multiple rights ;
not just a right to public space, or a right to information and

transparency in government, or a right to this service or that,

the right to a totality.

Urban institutions
decisions affecting the everyday lives of urban residents,

how actual rights are distributed and regulated.

 Con…
Civil rights act and the fair housing act in the US decree
racial-ethnic equality,

Ban discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, and religion,

Local zoning ordinances impose severe restrictions,

 local officials employ a range of strategies

 Housing regulations and zoning favor certain groups.

Governance practices make cities key arenas of struggle shaping

how rights are distributed, implemented, and violated.

 Con…
The process of group politicization is driven by the disconnect between
 the group’s expectations of equal rights, and

 everyday experiences that violate those expectations

City becomes the frontline space where inequality and injustice are experienced.
When groups become politically conscious and can mobilize sufficient

resources, their first political targets tend to be those

Urban policies and practices restricted their civil or political rights.

The civil rights movement in the US against

 Restrictive neighborhood covenants,

Segregation in local school districts, and racially segregated public spaces.

 Con…
These antagonisms based on everyday urban experiences gave rise to political
mobilization.

World Charter to right to city encompasses internationally recognized human rights

to housing, social security, work, an adequate standard of living, information….

Right to adequate housing includes;

Security of tenure (protection against forced eviction)

Affordable rents or building costs,

Clean water, sanitation, cooking facilities,

Safe buildings with adequate living space, and

Access to jobs, health care, schools and other services.
 Sociological aspects of housing research

Housing: a distinctive pillar of the welfare state

World War II welfare systems were being established to provide,

 Sufficient housing of adequate standard was a high priority,

Took place in the context of acute housing shortages,

Three decades of low rates of construction marked by a world depression,

The establishment of comprehensive systems of welfare coincided with the

need for a huge effort to house the population.
 Con…
Public expenditure on housing has been high during the expansion

years of the welfare states.

Other three pillars of the welfare state

social security, health and education

Four pillars are universal

 have been very different in the way they are

funded and organized.

 Con…
Housing differs from the three other pillars of the welfare state characterized;
High capital intensity,

Crash programs implemented in most countries during the early

post-war decades to expand the housing stock have demanded
huge capital investments,
Financed (either directly out of taxation),
 Heavily subsidized by means of low-interest loans,
Cash transfers (housing allowances and tax subsidies),

more sensibly seen as part of the social security system (education,

child allowances, health care, sickness and disability benefits).

 Con…
When housing has been directly provided by central or local government
 almost always been provided for a minority,
considered as a universal right,
Private housing (owner-occupied housing subsidized by the state),

The ambiguous place of housing in the welfare state,

The wide variations in the kinds of housing ( state and private), and

 provided together with the vulnerability of housing to public

expenditure reductions led,
Housing as the wobbly pillar under the welfare state
 Con…
Housing research
Shift the focus of housing as a self-contained and isolated ‘pillar of welfare’

to the relationship between,

Housing and the welfare state in general,

Housing and the other three pillars of welfare, and

Housing to other areas of welfare (transport, planning,

labour policy and child care…)

Housing research focuses on housing as a dimension of society

 Con…

Housing studies
Multidisciplinary field of research(sociology, history, planning….),

A common denominator of a number of research topics

(housing policy, provision, organizations, mobility, tenures, inequalities).

Needs to draw more extensively from debates and theories in the social sciences.

Focuses on housing as a dimension of society

 Residence as a socio-spatial focus
Housing studies within the social sciences;
Social dimension of housing and the physical dimension

Household-dwelling relationship

(an integrated socio-spatial dimension)

The socio-spatial relationships centring on housing (residence),

Encompasses both internal dwelling and external locality factors.

Residence in the sense of residing in a dwelling in a particular locality

focuses on the socio-spatial significance of housing

 Con…
 The traditional housing concerns (financing, constructing,
managing), and
 Spatial impact of the dwelling

Focuses on the interaction between household and dwelling and their

combined effect.

Residence places the individual

the household (at the centre of analysis)

By focusing on the act of residing and its socio-spatial implications

 household (its composition, socioeconomic status),

 dwelling (including its type, size, conditions and facilities) and

 residence (including shops, laundries, takeaways, collective transport, etc.).
 Research process
Search for an answer to a question /solution to a problem,

to extend knowledge, build theories, and

To verify and test facts, predict events and derive causal explanations.

Systematic step by step procedure to seek facts or theories

Relies on evidence, use concepts, follows ethical neutrality,

formulate generalization ensures verifiability, and

 uses logical reasoning

 Research methods
Literature review, problem, objectives, research design, gather data, interpret,

findings.

Qualitative and quantitative research approaches

Qualitative
 Explore problems or issues and used to write in a literary, flexible style that
conveys stories, of theater, or poems,
 Understand a given research problem or topic(local population),

 In depth the rich lives of human beings and the world in which we live.
 Con…
Paradigms or Worldviews (a basic set of beliefs that guide action)
Postpositivism, meaning and the creation of new knowledge and the importance
of observation for the growth of knowledge

Constructivism, (pluralistic, interpretive, open-ended, and

contextualized perspectives).
Pragmatism, (focuses on the nature of truth),

truth is found in “what works,” (relative to the current situation),

it offers a method for selecting methodological mixes that can help
researchers better answer many of their research questions.
 Research design
Five approaches,
Narrative,
A rich source of data in several areas of linguistic,

Inquirers gain information from individuals by obtaining their permission

to participate in the study.

Phenomenology,
study of phenomena and it is a way of describing something that exists as

part of the world in which we live,

individuals who have all experienced the phenomenon being explored and
can articulate their lived experiences.
 Con…
Grounded theory,
 The discovery of theory from data which systematically obtained and
analyzed in social research,

Case study,
Allows the researcher to retain the holistic and meaningful

characteristics of real-life events,

Ethnography,
For descriptive studies of cultures and peoples and it entail extensive

fieldwork by the researcher.

 Con…
Sampling
Non-probability sampling (deliberate sampling),

Purposive sampling and judgement sampling,

Data Collection
Observation, survey

Interview (unstructured open ended questions)

Document review

Focus group discussion,

 Con…
Quantitative

Positivism
To establish the scientific laws of society, the causal relationship,

which are arrived by testing hypothesis as in science.

Allows the researcher to familiarize problem or concept to be studied, and
generate hypotheses to be tested.
Generalizations from sample to a wider population.
 Con…
Research design
Experimental, survey, descriptive.
An explanatory study on real life situations over which the researcher
has little or no control.
Sampling
Probability sampling
Random
 Each unit included in the sample will have certain pre assigned
chance of inclusion,
Lottery
 Each member of the population at hand is assigned a unique number.
 Con…
Stratified
Heterogeneous population(homogeneous groups),
Cluster
The entire population is divided into clusters,

Data analysis
 Quantitative

 Qualitative
Quantitative Qualitative
Quantitative Qualitative
 References

Creswell, 2006 Understanding Mixed Methods Research

Kemeny, J., 2001. Comparative housing and welfare: Theorizing the relationship.
Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 16(1), pp.53-70.