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    Research in Progress: Urban Abandonment and Quasi-Public Space: A New Lefebvrian Approach

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    Research in Progress: Urban Abandonment and Quasi-Public Space: A New Lefebvrian Approach

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    Research in Progress: Urban Abandonment and Quasi-Public Space: A New Lefebvrian Approach

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    Tarek Mohamed Tarek Fouad
    Urban_Abandonment_and_Quasi-public_Space

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    of 14

    Urban Abandonment and Quasi-public Space:

    a new Lefebvrian approach


    AESOP Annual Congress 2017
    Spaces of Dialogue for places of Dignity
    Lisbon 11-14 July

    Dr Michael E Leary-Owhin
    London South Bank University
    lsbu.academia.edu/Michael.Leary-Owhin top 0.1%

    Research in Progress
    • Lefebvre's differential space and shrinking cities
    • Comparative research: Wigg Island, Pomona Island
    • Archival, social media interview and observational
    research
    • Counter-projects led by
    civil society groups
    • Focus on quasi-public space
    and differential space
    - one of Lefebvre's
    rights to the city
    ™ Findings so far

    1
    The Potentials of Shrinking City Abandonment:
    Henri Lefebvre's view

    in, Leary-Owhin (2016: 273) Exploring the production of urban space: Differential
    space in three post-industrial cities , Bristol, Policy Press

    Research Context
    Shrinking Cities and Abandonment
    - shrinking cities concept from early 2000s
    - a continuation of post-industrial idea
    - e.g. Detroit, St Louis, Manchester (and cities in Germany, France
    and former Eastern Europe)
    - economic & industrial/manufacturing sector decline
    - factory closure, increasing unemployment
    - derelict and contaminated land
    - growth of abandoned urban land
    - sites often bought or default to
    the public sector
    ‰ opportunities

    2
    Cities and Public Space
    Cities are the height of human achievement. Cities are
    fraught with ambivalence. We adore city life; it
    stimulates, entertains and excites.
    Conversely, urban experiences are scary, disorientating
    and may be physically and mentally deleterious.
    Cities are crucibles of democracy,
    yet remain cauldrons of inequality
    and injustice.

    Public space is the city synecdoche


    par excellence

    Lefebvre’s ‘Traditional’ Spatial Triad

    public space
    abstract space
    differential space

    3
    • abstract space: the urban spaces of state regulated neo-
    capital characterised by restricted access, restricted
    performance, commodified exchange value and the tendency to
    homogenisation.

    • differential space: privileges inclusiveness and use value


    rather than the exchange value of abstract space. It is often
    transitory space which can arise from the inherent
    vulnerabilities of abstract space.

    • counter-projects: initiatives in the urban environment


    promoted by civil society interest groups that run counter to
    official representations of space and are often resisted by city
    authorities, especially at the time of instigation.

    Differential Space
    Thus, despite – or rather because of – its negativity, abstract space
    carries within itself the seeds of a new kind of space. I shall call
    that new space ‘differential space’, because inasmuch as abstract
    space tends towards homogeneity … a new space cannot be born
    (produced) unless it accentuates difference.
    (Lefebvre 1991 [1974]: 52)

    … space created and dominated by its users from the basis of its
    given conditions. It remains largely unspecified as to its functional
    and economic rationality, thus allowing for a wide spectrum of use
    which is capable of integrating a high degree of diversity, and
    stays open for change. (Groth and Corijn 2005 emphasis added)

    4
    Case Study 1: Wigg Island
    l

    Wigg Island Location

    5
    Social Media Sources: Birding at Wigg Island
    frodshammarshbirdblog.com/2012/12/04/birding-wigg-island-et-al/

    Luftwaffe reconnaissance photo 1940

    Local Archival Sources

    Thanks to Paul Oldfield


    and Gary Arnold
    Halton Borough Council

    6
    Local Archival Sources

    Thanks to Paul Oldfield


    and Gary Arnold
    Halton Borough Council

    Case Study 1: Wigg Island


    Shrinking city transformation
    - from 1860s chemicals and 1940s poison gas to inclusive
    nature reserve
    - via abandonment and the production of informal
    differential quasi-public space
    - to local authority nature reserve

    © Jon Baxter

    7
    Wigg Island Community Park
    Local Nature Reserve (Natural England)
    © Vincent Phillips Flickr

    © AppleCrypt

    © Kevin Rice

    Case Study 2: Pomona Island


    Manchester Salford Trafford

    8
    Case Study 2 Pomona Island
    Manchester Salford Trafford

    Friends of the Earth Nature walk to Pomona Island


    15th September 2014

    9
    Case Study 2 Pomona Island
    appropriation of abandoned shrinking city space
    ƒ another island and 1960s abandoned industrial site
    ƒ formerly owned by Manchester Ship Canal Company and
    Manchester City Council until 1980s
    ƒ sold to Peel Holdings - property developer
    ƒ left neglected for two decades
    ƒ colonised by nature and
    ƒ appropriated for everyday use
    ƒ became quasi-public space
    or differential space

    10
    Peel Holdings Development Proposals
    Hugely Controversial
    These are low-grade
    Torremolinos towers, a 'you
    must be joking' pair of non-
    entities.
    confidentials.com/manchester/pomona-island-is-
    this-peel-development-good-enough

    The decline of Pomona Island in


    central Manchester – from bustling
    dockland to worn-out wasteland –
    has created a rare oasis that
    deserves to become an Eden Project
    for the north.

    Research Source: archives and social media e.g. Facebook

    11
    https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/steve-hanson-natalie-bradbury-
    robert-galeta/pomona-for-people

    12
    http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=407723&page=40

    Findings so far
    - importance of civil society groups occupying abandoned
    quasi-public urban space
    - creation of a counter-project (differential space)
    - long-term nature of transformation
    - importance of transition of counter-project to the
    mainstream i.e. championed by local government
    - crucial public land ownership
    and management the site
    Future Research Questions
    1. How precisely were these new urban public space produced?
    2. Why were the outcomes so different?
    Finally…

    13
    Final Thoughts
    ‰ It is differential quasi-public space that erupts through the
    vulnerabilities of abstract space. It is differential space that
    becomes the desired outcome of the production of urban public
    space in the 21st century. There are roles for planners, urban
    regenerators, citizens and inhabitants in the production of
    differential space.

    ‰ Differential space facilitates


    the potentials for
    the production of
    quasi-public
    Spaces of Hope

    Finally Finally…
    Thanks for being here

    Recent and Ongoing Research


    Leary-Owhin M.E and McCarty J.P. (forthcoming 2019) The Routledge Handbook of
    Henri Lefebvre, the City and Urban Society: London: Routledge
    Update - Lefebvre and the City Routledge Handbook

    Leary-Owhin M.E (forthcoming 2018) Special Issue of the Journal Urban Planning -
    - "Urban Planning and the Spatial Ideas of Henri Lefebvre"

    Leary-Owhin M. E. (forthcoming 2017) Convenor, Session 24 The Right to The City:


    urban and global justice, RC21 Conference, Rethinking Urban Global Justice: An
    international academic conference for critical urban studies, Leeds University
    11-13 September

    Leary-Owhin (2016) Exploring the production of urban space: Differential space in


    three post-industrial cities Bristol: Policy Press

    Leary M.E and McCarthy J.P. (2013) The Routledge Companion to Urban
    Regeneration London: Routledge

    14

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