The desire of city governments for a 'renaissance' of their inner-cities has become a defining feature of contemporary urban policy. From Berlin and Toronto to Johannesburg and Beijing, government policies are succeeding in attracting investment and middle-class populations (back) to their inner areas. Cities undergoing regeneration--or gentrification as this process can often become--produce winners and losers. There is now a substantial literature on the inequitable effects of rent increases and displacement, for example, and even more on the global and local contexts for urban regeneration and the reasons governments encourage it. But there is very little exploration of the policies used to drive regeneration. Whose Urban Renaissance expands understandings of who participates in and benefits from the 'urban renaissance'. Edited contributions from researchers and activists in 21 cities across Europe, North and South America, Asia, South Africa, the Middle East and Australia examine specific cases of urban regeneration.They focus on the policies driving the regeneration process and their effects, on local contingencies that influence the way these policies work, on instances of opposition and active struggle, and on the occasional policy interventions that are used to ameliorate the negative impacts of gentrification.
The editors develop a comparative analysis of these policy drivers, constraints and responses in the concluding chapters. These chapters provide both a critical, comparative assessment of existing policy as well as a significant contribution to more equitable policy approaches for the future. This book takes the first detailed look at the policies used to drive regeneration, how they work on the ground, their effects, and the extent to which varying levels of 'success' are contingent on local conditions. A unique focus of the book is on instances where policy has been used to achieve more socially equitable outcomes--harnessing the benefits of regeneration without displacing or excluding vulnerable residents.The book is targeted at scholars, students, practitioners and activists: its constructive policy emphasis and geographical breadth is unique; Whose Urban Renaissance offers a succinct, critical and timely exploration of urban regeneration.