IN-PERSON: Livable Cities – New York

Abstract

Mixed-tenure regeneration (MTR) is a widely applied strategy to transform disadvantaged social housing estates into mixed-tenure and mixed-income neighborhoods. MTR success relies simultaneously on physical and social transformations processes. Thus, efforts to deliver attractive housing opportunities and urban spaces should go hand in hand with efforts to build inclusive, cohesive, and well-functioning communities that integrate high- and low-income, new-comers and long-time residents. This calls for integrated and comprehensive approaches that couple community workers and service providers with urban planning and development. Yet, while the evidence available suggest that coupling the social and physical dimensions of neighborhood regeneration poses considerable challenges, cross-sector collaborations between urban planners and community building practitioners remain under-researched. The paper aims to contribute to filling this gap. It applies network collaboration theory to examine an empirical case of cross-sector collaboration around social housing transformation in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Copenhagen, Denmark. The paper finds that while community workers and service providers offer the opportunity to draw on established relations in community involvement while gaining a deeper understanding of community needs, community workers were in practice decoupled from physical regeneration activities. Decoupling was driven by siloed organization and funding structures, conflicting aims and objectives, and the absence of collaborative leadership and platforms for cross-sector collaborations. Findings suggest that promoting comprehensive MTR approaches calls for stronger leadership orientation towards the social dimension of regeneration.