Academics have decried the erosion of public space under the neoliberal practices that have taken root since the 1980s in cities around the world. However, it is unclear whether users are concerned about the ownership of the urban spaces they use. To find out, this study surveyed users and observed their behaviour in three types of public spaces in Liverpool, UK: one entirely private development, one public-private partnership, and one urban renewal project taken over by a grassroots organization. The findings indicate that users appreciate privatised areas for the pleasant, clean, and safe environment they offer, as well as for the socialising opportunities. At the same time, privatised spaces send subtle signals to users that certain activities, people, or behaviours are not tolerated or encouraged. To reinforce the democratic essence of public space, values of appropriation should be safeguarded in all types of urban spaces, including privately produced ones.

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The widening income gap in post-reform China has given rise to social inequality. Among those, transport poverty and inequality have significantly affected the daily life of low-income groups. While important, this is an under-researched topic in China. This gap in the academic literature is glaring given the country’s urbanization rates, sprawling cities and income differentials. Most previous studies have only focused on two aspects of transport poverty—job-housing imbalance and accessibility. A comprehensive understanding of the causes and impacts of transport inequality is currently lacking. Therefore, a systematic review of academic literature based on keywords relevant to transport poverty in China was conducted to provide a more complete assessment of the situation in Chinese cities. In total, 62 relevant studies were identified after close examination of the articles (including titles, abstracts, and full-texts). This set of articles allowed a number of general patterns to be identified. It was found that the most common causes of transport poverty include: a lack of access to private vehicles; uneven access to alternative transport options; inadequate public transport provision; jobs-housing imbalance; and the hukou system (a system of household registration which aims to regulate population distribution and rural-to-urban migration). The main impacts of transport poverty include: curtailed mobility and longer travel times; higher household expenditures on travel; reduced access to jobs and essential services; higher household expenditures on travel; and health and environmental issues@en

In the last four decades, public space production has shifted from being predominantly led by the public sector to include a greater variety of private actors, large and small, for-profit and non-profit. This study, set in Liverpool, England, analyses and compares three variations of the privatization of public space production: entirely private development; public private partnership (PPP); and community-led development. The purpose is to determine whether, why, and by how much ‘publicness’ has declined in the production of urban spaces. While most planning literature has tended to demonize privatization, this study reveals that processes which tend to be collaborative and involve multiple public and private stakeholders have a higher degree of ‘publicness’ compared to both entirely privately-led and entirely publicly-led processes.

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This study examines the conceptualizations of planning research by more than two hundred Master’s students enrolled in planning schools located throughout four continents. The study is set in the context of theories on the two main traditions of planning thought: “planning as a social science” and “planning as design.” The findings reveal that planning students typically have one of four conceptions of planning research: (1) research as trading of ideas, (2) research as gathering of evidence, (3) research as precursor to design, and (4) research as rhetoric. While the planning schools included in this study have diverse orientations (along the design–social science continuum), our findings suggest that planning students most often conceptualize this discipline as a social science. The orientation of a planning student’s current school or department appears to be more important in determining a student’s conception research than his or her undergraduate study major. While planning curricula are becoming more homogenized around the world, some national traditions persist which then affect how students regard planning research.@en

The chapter reflects on the 12 case studies discussed in the book and considers their implications for future research. At the end of the chapter, a new agenda for parking research in large cities is set out.

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This article focuses on west-east planning policy transfers in Europe–the movement of ideas, principles, priorities, and processes related to the development, implementation and evaluation of planning policy. It examines the case of Albania, where various activities to promote the transfer of policy have taken place over the last quarter century. Since the end of communism in 1990, foreign consultants have been involved in providing advice on a range of policy issues, including urban and regional planning. Drawing on a survey of consultants with direct experience of providing policy advice in Albania, the article explores the impact of west-east planning policy transfer and the key barriers it has faced.

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The concept of Transit-Oriented Development—development near, and/or oriented to, mass transit facilities—has generated much interest in Europe over the last decade. Coined in the United States in the 1990s, the term “TOD” is frequently assumed to be a recent American import and a reaction to the consequences of mass motorization and sprawl. However, TOD is based on much older ideas of rail-based urban development that took place in many European cities during the 19th and 20th centuries. Arguably, the modern reincarnation of TOD is more focused on urban aesthetics. Other tenets, such as accessibility, density, and mixed-use, have remained more or less unchanged.

This article examines how planning policies in three European capital city-regions—Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Vienna—have been shaped by the ideas and principles underlying TOD. The three case studies were selected because all are located in European countries with mature systems of spatial planning: the Netherlands (Western Europe), Sweden (Northern Europe), and Austria (Central Europe). The article examines the extent to which planning policies from the mid-20th century to the present have reflected TOD principles. The analysis is based on secondary sources (articles, books, and planning reports), and the focus of the study is on policy rather than measurements and metrics. The last three decades are explored more in depth as material is more readily available.

The first part of the analysis summarizes the development of spatial planning in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Austria since WWII, with an eye to highlighting policies that could be considered to be, or might affect, TOD. The second part deals with the implications of these policies in terms of past, present, and future TOD planning and practice in the respective capital city-regions: Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Vienna.@en

Many urban areas, both in the Global North and South, are becoming increasingly automobile-dominated and less sustainable. The need to take action is well recognized but all too often governance arrangements and the symbolism attached to automobility stand in the way. Drawing on international experience, this article summarizes some of the necessary preconditions of urban governance for promoting more sustainable urban transport in the Global South, highlights priority policy areas for action, reviews a range of key policy measures for promoting sustainable urban transport, and discusses the potential for transferring experience and practice from the Global North to the Global South.@en