Report: Making the City WorkAuthor(s): George GordonSource: Area, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1982), pp. 38-39Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20001771 .

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38 Making the city work

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Making the city work

Report of the first conference of Project Turin International organised by Glasgow District Council, 21-23 October 1981.

The Project was conceived at the Conference of Mayors of Major World Cities in Milan and Turin 1978. Subsequently, six cities (Turin, Glasgow, Lille, Cracow, Dresden and Cologne) agreed to participate in a programme of research and an exchange of experiences with the

Vienna Centre (The European Centre for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences) acting in a co-ordinating capacity. After a series of meetings between delegations from the participating cities, Glasgow was chosen as the venue for the launching conference. Its two principal themes were partnership initiatives with the private sector, and decentralisation and participation in urban government.

The 180 delegates included representatives from the participating cities, local and national government, the universities, other major cities, development agencies, housing agencies, planning, the construction industry, trade unions and tenants associations. They were welcomed by the Lord Provost of Glasgow, Dr. Michael Kelly, who praised the foresight and initiative of the Mayor of Turin, the founding force behind the project. In reply, the Mayor stressed the need for co-operation and the benefits which could be gained from an interchange of ideas and research experience. He outlined the philosophy which should motivate the participants; that it

was not sufficient to know reality, one must seek to shape and improve to create a new reality. The remainder of the opening session consisted of brief background papers about the project and economic profiles of the participating cities. Guiseppe Chiezzi (Turin) indicated that Project Turin was concerned with the changing urban economy and its territorial and social aspects. To date each city was free to select appropriate research programmes although they were all broadly committed to research on the determinants and effects of social and economic change in the city.

Moreover, they had agreed to a series of meetings which would facilitate exchanges on comparative policy experience in the respective city administrations. Mr. Montanari (Vienna Centre) announced that there was the possibility of an exchange of research findings and policy experience between Project Turin and a number of Latin American cities.

In the session on Problems of the Contemporary City the Rt. Hon. Gerald Kaufman ably described the policies of the Labour Party in relation to inner cities, the ex-Rector of Glasgow University, broadcaster and trade unionist, Jimmy Reid, delivered a lively address on change in urban society and Robin Duthie, Chairman of the SDA, summarised some of the work of the GEAR project in the eastern sector of Glasgow. The whole introductory day would have been more successful and productive if there had been a pre-circulation of papers. Regrettably few of

the papers were available at the conference which placed an unnecessary strain on comprehension and the lucid dissemination of basic data about the project and the cities.

The morning session on the second day was devoted to the topic of partnership initiatives with the private sector with particular reference to Merseyside, Turin and Cologne. After the events of summer 1981 the contribution from the Chief Executive of Merseyside County Council, Raymond O'Brien, was especially topical and of great interest to the delegates. Clearly, Merseyside faces serious problems in relation to the challenge of the pressing need for the

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Making the city work 39

regeneration of the inner city. The paper on public-private co-operation in urban renewal and housing was also timely on the day when Glasgow District Council announced the release of several pockets of land for private housebuilding at sites adjoining existing local authority housing estates.

The afternoon session was primarily devoted to a series of papers on the theme of decentralisation and participation in urban government. Contributions reported on British and European experiences of attempts to create greater community involvement in the administration of cities. Current opposition to the established top-down model of management was amply illustrated in the contributions although there is a need for clearer articulation of what community involvement is expected to produce and how these aims are to be achieved.

The contribution by Malcolm Rifkind, Scottish Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, returned to the topic of inner city problems. There is a distinct danger, in the Scottish context at least, in over-stressing the inner city at the expense of other problem sub-areas within the city, notably severely deprived enclaves in inter-war and post-war local authority estates, and

Malcolm Rifkind appeared to court that situation. The final session on the third day consisted of three papers by local politicians and a

concluding survey by David Donnison (University of Glasgow). The least overtly political contribution was that from Councillor lain Dyer, a former Housing Convener in Glasgow who recounted the development of Housing Associations in that city. The leader of the controlling Labour group, Councillor Jean McFadden described the progress of the Area Management policy which had been in operation for some fifteen months. She gave a lucid illustration of her views of democracy whilst simultaneously revealing some of the establishment attitudes which prevail amongst officials and elected councillors when confronted with an apparently radical organisational change. The third paper by a local politician was a stimulating, if hurried, analysis by Councillor Ronald Young of the policies of Strathclyde Regional Council since 1976 with reference to positive discrimination and community involvement.

In summarising the conference David Donnison mentioned the common links between the participating cities stemming from similar physical and economic problems. He noted that renewal is now recognised as a continual problem and process, not a situation which can be resolved once and for all. To solve the problems of these cities there was a need for risk capital

which he believed must increasingly be drawn from the public sector. There was also an urgent need for management skills and management advice to be available to potential small entrepreneurs. He commended the frank explanations of failures which had been voiced at the conference and emphasised the need for such discussions if lessons were truly to be learned. He offered the audience some consolation by stressing that we are presently coping with the problems which are an inevitable aftermath of a largely successful phase of top-down imposed redevelopment. That view does, however, beg the question of the future role of community involvement. Is it merely a localised fine tuning or a grouse clearing shop or can the whole plan and policy be created from the parts instead of the centre? Perhaps subsequent conferences of Project Turin International will shed further light on this debate.

George Gordon University of Strathclyde

Department of Industry Regional Research Series

2. Post Industry Act (1972)-Industrial movement into and expansion in the assisted areas of Great Britain: some survey findings, by Frank Herron

The paper is available free to anyone on the Government Economic Service mailing list, but otherwise costs 50p. Cheques should be made payable to the Civil Service Department and copies may be obtained from Miss J. Dinehart, Civil Service College, 11 Belgrave Road, London SWIV IRU.

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