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Urban, Community and Regional Planning

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Selected Works

Political Economy of Urban and Community Development (focus on real estate)

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Architecture

Understanding Community Development In A “Theory Of Action” Framework: Norms, Markets, Justice, Laura Wolf-Powers May 2014

Understanding Community Development In A “Theory Of Action” Framework: Norms, Markets, Justice, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

During the Great Recession, community development practitioners in the USA strove to prevent and mitigate mortgage foreclosures and to help people cope with their neighbourhood-level impacts. This paper proposes that three normative theories – theories of action – underlay this activity, as they underlie the practice of neighbourhood regeneration or “community development” planning in the USA in general. These theories of action are based, respectively, on planners’ perceived need for the reinstitution of civil norms, capital markets, and social justice in disinvested areas of cities and regions. Each theory links description with prescription, answering both the question “What’s going on …


Human-Capital-Centred Regionalism In Economic Development: A Case Of Analytics Outpacing Institutions?, Laura Wolf-Powers Mar 2012

Human-Capital-Centred Regionalism In Economic Development: A Case Of Analytics Outpacing Institutions?, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

Drawing on the case of the Delaware Valley Innovation Network, a regional consortium funded under the US Department of Labor, the paper argues that sophisticated analytical tools developed to facilitate workforce- and occupation-led economic development are running ahead of the institution-building required to put new approaches into practice. There are two main reasons for this. First, tensions persist around the role of the public-sector workforce system in regional development initiatives. Secondly, regional stakeholders disagree about whether ‘knowledge economy’ investments should include the training of manufacturing, transport and logistics workers. The documentation of regional occupational specialisations, ‘talent gap’ analyses and the …


Community Benefits Agreements In A Value Capture Context, Laura Wolf-Powers Dec 2011

Community Benefits Agreements In A Value Capture Context, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

No abstract provided.


Human Capital-Centered Regionalism In Economic Development: The Case Of Philadelphia’S Biosciences Sector, Laura Wolf-Powers Dec 2010

Human Capital-Centered Regionalism In Economic Development: The Case Of Philadelphia’S Biosciences Sector, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

The paper, drawing on a case study of a regional "talent development" consortium in the Greater Philadelphia metro region, argues that the analytic tools developed to facilitate workforce- and occupation-led economic development are ahead of the institution-building required to put new approaches into practice, for two reasons. First, tensions persist around the role of the public sector workforce system in regional development initiatives. Second, regional stakeholders disagree about whether “knowledge economy” investments should include the training of manufacturing, transportation and logistics workers, leading to the frequent and controversial neglect of blue-collar occupations. The documentation of regional occupational specializations, “talent gap” …


Community Benefits Agreements And Local Government: A Review Of Recent Evidence, Laura Wolf-Powers Dec 2009

Community Benefits Agreements And Local Government: A Review Of Recent Evidence, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

As community benefits agreements (CBAs) become more common in urban redevelopment, they are generating conceptual confusion and political controversy. Planners who encounter CBA campaigns in practice have limited means of evaluating CBAs’ desirability and likely impact without a more complete understanding of how they interact in practice with municipal government leadership and policy. This paper examines four urban redevelopment projects in which community benefits agreements have been enacted by some combination of community organizations, legislators and developers. While much of the expository literature on community benefits agreements is focused on the inclusivity and political moxy of local organizing coalitions, I …


Keeping Counterpublics Alive In Planning, Laura Wolf-Powers Dec 2008

Keeping Counterpublics Alive In Planning, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

No abstract provided.


Expanding Planning’S Public Sphere: Street Magazine, Activist Planning And Community Development In Brooklyn, Ny 1971-75, Laura Wolf-Powers Nov 2008

Expanding Planning’S Public Sphere: Street Magazine, Activist Planning And Community Development In Brooklyn, Ny 1971-75, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a paradigm of activist planning or critical city planning became a new “tributary” feeding the stream of the planning profession. STREET Magazine, published from 1971 to 1975 by the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development in Brooklyn, NY, offers a lens through which to examine the expansion of the profession to encompass a range of ideas associated with this paradigm. This article, drawing on an extensive review of STREET magazine’s content within the historical context in which it was produced, as well as interviews with people involved with the publication, argues …


How The Far West Side Will Be Won, Laura Wolf-Powers Jul 2004

How The Far West Side Will Be Won, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

No abstract provided.