Jigsaw Cities: Big Places, Small Spaces

Anne Power and John Houghton (2007)
Policy Press, Bristol
Paperback £23.99 ISBN 9781861346582
Hardback £65.00 ISBN 9781861346599


The decline and subsequent renewal of British cities is a key theme in contemporary urban policy. In this timely and insightful book, Power and Houghton use the metaphor of a ‘jigsaw’ to illuminate both the complexity and interconnectedness of cities as they respond to a plethora of social, economic and environmental forces. Crucial to their analysis is the role of neighbourhoods as building blocks for urban renewal. The need for cities to remodel themselves in response to ever changing conditions, and the role of state interventions are also emphasised.

Drawing on decades of direct involvement in a range of urban programmes and communities, the authors offer a comprehensive coverage of the issues facing Britain’s cities, both past and present. Importantly, the book is written in an accessible style, making it a key text for students, policymakers and practitioners in the field, as well as academics.

The book is divided into three substantive sections. Part I explores Britain’s urban history, ranging from 19th century urbanisation to contemporary developments such as housing stock transfer and gentrification. In doing so it outlines landmark legislative change, and emphasises the pivotal role of philanthropic reformers such as Octavia Hill. Part II offers a “progress report” (p105) on Britain’s cities today, engaging head-on with policy initiatives concerned with averting urban decline and promoting the growth and sustainability of cities. It explicitly addresses key policy agendas of the New Labour administration, such as the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal (2000) and the Sustainable Communities Plan (2003). Finally, Part III moves on to consider the future evolution of our cities. In particular it emphasises the need for “smart growth”, by creating a “fixed urban growth boundary” (p165), and related to this the need for local neighbourhood management and sustainable communities. All of these are topical issues in contemporary urban policy debates.

A key strength of this book is that is highlights how a consideration of our past is relevant to understanding our present. The historical detail of this book is therefore to be welcomed, and indeed, by bringing together such a comprehensive review of Britain’s urban history in one publication, it makes an important contribution to the literature. However, it does not have the same depth of analysis and critical insight offered by other historical accounts of urban Britain, such as Alison Ravetz’s (2001) excellent book Council Housing and Culture: the history of social experiment, and more recently Mike Raco’s (2007) Building Sustainable Communities: spatial policy and labour mobility in post-war Britain. Power and Houghton’s book may therefore be too descriptive, and also found wanting in terms of critical interrogation of contemporary policy agendas, for some readers. Furthermore, although this publication is primarily aimed at a policy audience, a brief acknowledgement of wider theoretical debates would have been beneficial.

Whilst the introduction to the book frames it as an analysis of ‘British’ cities, discussion is nonetheless dominated by developments and policy agendas that are occurring in England. Given the divergence of urban and housing policy post-devolution this is a disappointing omission. Whilst some of the debates touched on by the authors are applicable to other regions of the UK, a more detailed consideration of developments in Scotland, Wales, and indeed Northern Ireland, would have been useful. The case of stock transfer is pertinent here. The authors focus considerably on the 2001 stock transfer ballot in Birmingham, yet offer no detailed exploration of the 2003 Glasgow ballot, which had a very similar set of problems (Daly et al 2005). Much more could have been made of this potentially useful comparator, in order to explore policy divergence across the UK.

In conclusion, Jigsaw Cities: Big Places, Small Spaces is a valuable textbook for students, researchers, policymakers and practitioners in the broad, multi-disciplinary field of urban studies. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary policy debates combined with historical analysis, it is a key reference point for understanding the challenges and solutions facing urban Britain.

References
Daly, M et al (2005) “Housing Stock Transfer in Birmingham and Glasgow: the contrasting experiences of two UK cities”, European Journal of Housing Policy 5(3): 327-341.

Raco, M. (2007) “Building Sustainable Communities: spatial policy and labour mobility in post-war Britain”. Bristol, Policy Press.

Ravetz, A. (2001) “Council Housing and Culture: the history of social experiment”. London, Routledge.

Kim McKee
Dpt. Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow

Poll Comments - Are today's housing researchers too uncritical of the policies they research?

Please leave comments on the current poll here. Click to leave a comment and join the debate.


All comments are moderated by the editor prior to posting to avoid SPAM.

New Poll

The previous poll closed just before Easter and 9 of you voted on whether the Housing Market Renewal Programme should be abolished, with 2 to 1 in favour of keeping the programme. Unfortunately no comments were received from either those or against so the reasons for these votes remain unclear.

This months poll follows on from Prof. Ian Cole's pre-dinner paper at the recent HSA Conference: "Are today's housing researchers too uncritical of the policies they research?". Voting opens now for 2 weeks.

Please continue to provide suggestions for the poll.

Getting Published, Getting Known - Some Advice On Writing For Publication

When looking for that first academic post, there’s nothing more impressive on your CV than having journal articles already published, or in press. Being able to publish early in your academic career not only proves that you have what it takes to disseminate your intellectual ideas to a wider audience and can stand up to the rigour of peer-review, but more importantly perhaps, highlights that someone other than your supervisor thought your thesis was worth reading and offered potential insights for your discipline…..even if it was only a journal editor and two anonymous referees! But this can be a daunting prospect. The way in which you go about getting your work published often seems shrouded in mystery, and of course no-one likes to be rejected. As recent PhD researchers who were successful in securing publication whilst still students, we thought it might be helpful if we shared our experiences of writing for publication and remove some of the terror the process might hold.

First, the key thing we would recommend is to disseminate your research findings and theoretical arguments widely. Present at conferences, departmental seminars and PhD gatherings. Doing this will not only force you to think about how you might summarise and organise your thoughts, but will also provide valuable feedback on your ideas from your peers and more experienced colleagues. This will help iron-out any fundamental flaws or gaps in your argument, and will also enable you to gauge how receptive audiences are to what you have to say. Indeed for us, all our journal publications have first been conference papers. Once you have taken the time and effort to prepare a written paper and presentation for a conference, it is worth spending that little extra time working it up into an article for journal submission.

Second, we would also recommend that you use all available networks to get feedback on your paper before your submit it to a journal. Don’t be afraid to email or telephone individuals involved in similar research to yourself, or to chap on the door of colleagues within your department, to ask them for some comments on what you have written. Whilst academic staff are busy people, they may also be flattered to be identified as an ‘authority’ in their field, as well as genuinely interested in current research and therefore happy to provide you with some comments. Other PhD students are also a valuable resource, by way of giving you feedback about how accessible your work is to a wider audience unfamiliar with your research topic. Your supervisor is also a good source of advice and support here, and will be pleased that you are being proactive and trying to publish your work.

Third, think about writing collaborations – either with your supervisors or indeed, other PhD students. Whilst writing with someone more experienced may help guide you through the pitfalls of the publication process, writing with PhD students can also be fun – as we can testify! To do this you need to identify those students in your department who are researching similar topics, or draw on similar theoretical frameworks to yourself. Writing collaboratively not only means you have to write less, but it also gives you someone that you can bounce ideas off.

Fourth, once you’ve written the paper choose your journal carefully. Here it is worth spending some time in the library or on-line researching the different journals in your field and their scope and readership. Thinking about the particular journals that you like to read, or that you often reference in your own work, may help you narrow down you search here. If you are unsure speak to your supervisor about it, or better still email the journal editor and ask them if they would be interested in your paper. Many editors are receptive to such queries from researchers at an early stage in their career. One other thing to note here, is that whilst aiming for the highly ranked publications may look very prestigious on your CV it may take longer to be published than if you submitted to a lower ranked journal which has a quicker turnaround.

Fifth, once you’ve had your comments back from the refereeing process try not to be too disheartened if you don’t get the response you were hoping for. Even the most experienced academic writers rarely get their papers accepted by journals without any revisions needed. Furthermore, although it might not feel like it at first reading, referees are usually adept at providing fresh insights on you paper, especially in terms of potential weaknesses and limitations. It is therefore important when revising to attend to each of the suggestions they make. It is also good practice to accompany your resubmitted paper with a letter to the editor outlining how you have done so. However, if you strongly disagree with the referee’s comments or feel making the suggested changes would fundamentally change the argument of your paper, you should stick to your guns and make your case to the editor.

Writing papers for publication is the culmination of the research process: it allows you to collect and organise your thoughts, and ultimately to share them with others. It may feel intimidating and time-consuming, especially when you may have many demands in your life, but it is an invaluable process in terms of gaining experience and improving your employability. On a more personal level, it also feels great to see your name and work printed in a journal.

Kim McKee & Zhan McIntyre
University of Glasgow

News from CLG

Mark Kleinman has been appointed as Director of Migration and Chief Social Researcher. Together with the Chief Scientist, Chief Economist and Chief Statistician he will advise the Management Board on CLG's analytical strategy.

News From CIH, Northern Ireland

The Chartered Institute of Housing and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive have recently published a joint report on housing market affordability in Northern Ireland 2006/2007. The report, commissioned by CIH and NIHE from Professor Steve Wilcox of University of York, provides an analysis of housing market affordability in 2006/2007, and in particular highlights how housing market affordability in NI continued to worsen during this period. The link to the report is: http://www.cih.org/northernireland/policy.htm

A recent review into Affordable Housing has proposed developer contributions as a potential solution to the lack of affordable and social housing in Northern Ireland. With the recent announcement by the Minister of her intention to bring forward a model of developer contribution, this is a timely opportunity to debate this critical issue. The link to information is available at: www.cih.org/northernireland