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A Research Design to Build Effective Partnerships between City Planners, Developers, Government and Urban Neighbourhood Communities

Foth, Marcus and Adkins, Barbara A. (2005) A Research Design to Build Effective Partnerships between City Planners, Developers, Government and Urban Neighbourhood Communities. In Erwin, G. and Taylor, W. and Bytheway, A. and Strümpfer, C., Eds. Proceedings 2nd International Conference of the Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN), pages pp. 341-354, Cape Town, South Africa: Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

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Abstract

Communities of place feature prominently in new urbanism movements and in master-planned inner-city developments that result from urban renewal. This paper’s point of departure is the stark contrast between the widespread use of mobile and ubiquitous media and communications technology by urban dwellers on the one hand and endemic forms of urban alienation and the disappearance or non-existence of urban neighbourhood community identity on the other. Networked individualism introduces challenges to conventional understandings of ‘place’ and ‘public places’. It opens up opportunities to build partnerships between architecture, city planning and urban studies in order to re-conceptualise the understanding of community and neighbourhood planning in the light of new media and network ICTs. However, such a re-conceptualisation has not been achieved yet because of a lack of theoretical and practical understandings of the freedom and constraints and the social and cultural meanings that urban dwellers derive from their use of place-based ICT systems. The paper argues that in order to gain a better understanding of the continued purpose and relevance of urban neighbourhood communities in metropolitan areas and their changing role within a network society, the scope and structure of the communicative ecologies and social networks created and maintained by residents in urban residential real estate needs to be investigated empirically to inform city design and planning. The paper discusses a cross-disciplinary research design to build effective partnerships between city planners, developers, government, education and urban neighbourhood communities.

Item Type:Conference Paper
Status:Published
Keywords:new media; social networks; community informatics; urban renewal; inner city neighbourhoods; social capital
Subjects:400000 Journalism, Librarianship and Curatorial Studies > 400100 Journalism, Communication and Media > 400104 Communication and Media Studies
370000 Studies in Human Society > 370100 Sociology > 370104 Urban Sociology and Community Studies
370000 Studies in Human Society > 370400 Human Geography > 370401 Urban and Regional Studies
ID Code:1914
Deposited By:Foth, Marcus
Deposited On:02 September 2005
Copyright Owner:Copyright 2005 (please consult author)

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