LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Framework for a pilot project Our Kind OF TOwn ‘Towards a Citizens Atlas of London’ Phil Cohen Livingmaps network www.livingmaps.org.uk 1
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK The context • London, home from home for global property investment, real estate speculation and fjnancialisation of assets • Historic shift in metropolitan centre of gravity and growth from West to East • Accelerated de-industrialisation and gentrifjcation of inner London and working class suburbs • Privatisation of public space and amenities • Decline of social and affordable housing • Hollowing out of community assets and resources • Individualisation of social aspiration • Precarious lives, precarious work • Antinomies of governance: deregulation of infrastructure plus intensifjed ground control • Corporate Imagineering of the future: the smart city agenda 2
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Priorities for popular planning • Devolving planning power from the local state to neighbourhood forums to create a grass roots structure of decision making with capacity to regulate market forces in the interests of civic and community stakeholders • Re-connecting workplace and neighbourhood communities • Spatial planning for work/life balance • Re-designing public space and the built environment to prioritise women’s needs • Creating safe and adventurous places for and with children and teenagers • Re-enabling the elderly and people with special needs to enjoy full access to public amenities • Greening the urban economy and transport infra-structure 3
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Democratic defjcit: the challenge... • To enable established communities of London workers and residents facing an uncertain future to envisage and articulate their own vision /plan for ‘opportunity areas’ • To enable groups living ‘on the edge’ to connect issues of day to day survival with collective aspirations based on realistic principles of hope for a better future in a just city • To link personal geographies of the neighbourhood to the wider political geography of London as a world city. What does it mean to be a ‘Londoner’? • To replace reactive NIMBYism with pro-active YIMBYism • To recognise and enhance the power of place intelligence amongst marginalised groups 4
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Defjning ‘place intelligence’ • Translocally situated knowledge • Tacit and explicitly coded • Navigational and narrativised • Circumstantial and imaginative • Multi-modal skill set • Shapes place identity and belonging • Links attachment and aspiration to site specifjc resource 5
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Place intelligence: enhancing the skill set • Observational • Investigative • Interpretive • Communicational • Rhetorical • Analytic • Counter-intuitive 6
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Building place intelligence through participatory action research (PAr) • Co-constructing the agenda • Dialogic interviews • Collaborative mapping • Peer to Peer pedagogy • Transfer of knowledge and skills within a community of shared practice 7
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK OPPOrTuniTy ArEAS (FOr whOM?) 8
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Intensifjed gentrifjcation or more genuinely affordable & social housing? • Accelerated de-industrialisation or a more balanced but still green urban economy? • Privatisation of public space or more access to free recreational and cultural amenity for lower income groups, for women and children, and for the disabled? • Hollowing out community assets or strengthening urban bonds • Repressive ground control or ‘eyes on the street’ 9
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK The 2050 promise 10
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK 2050 Plan areas 11
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Megasites 12
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK The housing ‘brandscape’ 13
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Privately owned open spaces 14
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK heygate Estate 15
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK City in the East: Numbers 16
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK City in the East: Places 17
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK ‘A CiTizEnS ATLAS OF LOndOn’ 18
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Long term aims • To create a network of citizen mappers in ‘opportunity areas’ with little or no tradition of community activism but which will fjnd themselves on the front line of gentrifjcation and de- industrialisation. • To provide an online cartographic platform to help develop a culture of popular planning, scaling up locally situated knowledge into a translocal framework of democratic deliberation about London’s future. • To produce learning and campaigning resources and other material to support these aims. • To publish an atlas of maps and essays ‘Our Kind of Town’. 19
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Short term objectives • To pilot and evaluate a method of community mapping and participatory action research focused on maximising ‘place intelligence’. • To produce a citizen mapping of two contrasting ‘opportunity areas’ identifjed in the London 2050 infrastructure plan • To build and test a toolkit of learning and campaigning resources useful to residents and small businesses facing large scale regeneration plans which threaten their future. • To create an online prototype for the Citizens Atlas of London 20
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK The process 21 IMAGE: Diagram of the OKOT process (Nicolas Fonty)
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK TwO PiLOT ArEAS Charlton riverside & Silvertown/north woolwich 22
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK when the Thames was a working river 23 IMAGE: Map of North Woolwich and Charlton in 1937
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Charlton riverside Community issues • De-industrialisation: pressure on small businesses offering local employment to skilled manual workers to relocate to make way for higher value residential uses • Gentrifjcation: new housing built for market rent or home ownership – two council estates decanted for ‘refurbishment’ • Planning Blight: uncertainty results in lack of investment in industrial estates. • Viability of small creative industries hub • Flagship sites: (old ): Coreys Wharf - Charlton F . C. (new): Sainsburys DC - Odeon Imax 24
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Charlton: Concept Map 25
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Lydenburg Street 26
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK hopper 27
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Scheduled for demolition? 28
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Apply now 29
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK royal docks Community issues • Silvertown Tunnel and London City Airport expansion threatens to increase already high level of pollution • Future of Chinese Business Centre development uncertain • Tate and Lyle factory possible closure • Silvertown Quays development lack of social housing • Cross Rail impact • North Woolwich area of multiple deprivation continuing planning blight • Flagship sites: UEL Docklands Campus Excel Centre Newham Council Offjces 30
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Royal Docks: Plan View (1982) 31
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Royal Docks: Plan View (2016) 32
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Silvertown Quays 33
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK A view from Silvertown 34
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK A view from north woolwich 35
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK ThE PIloT: wOrKinG METhOdS 36
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Key stages of intervention • Identifjcation of key groups for workshops via pop-up mapping events • Opportunity area impact study focussing on key regeneration sites plus accident, crime and pollution hot spots • Testing and evaluating the toolkit • Creation of multi-layered map of area’s past present and future development • Multi-media presentation of alternative 2050 vision 37
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Participatory mapping (1) 38 IMAGE: Nicolas Fonty
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Participatory Mapping 2 39 IMAGE: Nicolas Fonty
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Community asset mapping 40 IMAGE: Nicolas Fonty
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Workshop Process: Stage one Mapping the past into the present • Life journey mapping + life story interviews • Building memoryscape: photo archive + place narratives • Recovering planning history: factual and counter factual • Back stories of community action 41
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Life journey map 42
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK history and the counter-factual 43 IMAGE: John Wallett
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Workshop Process: Stage Two: The present • Collective rewrite of area’s Wikipedia entry • Site observations + photo-documentation + video walkabouts • Narrative and network mapping • Community impact and asset mapping • Interviews with local residents and businesses, trade unionists and community activists 44
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK narrative mapping 45
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Mental maps 46 IMAGE: Phil Cohen
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Workshop Process: Stage Three Mapping the future • Scenario Construction • Model and map making • Co-creation of alternative opportunity area plan with team of student planners and architects 47
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Scenario Construction • Scenario One: The Neo-Liberal City - present trends continue maximising land values and rentier profjt • Scenario Two: The Smart City - maximising technological fjxes • Scenario Three: The People’s City - maximising social, economic and environmental justice 48
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK Visions of the Future The Smart City: Techno-Utopia 49
LiVinGMAPS nETwOrK The Consumer City 50
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