Prospects for social city development

Abstract

Towns and cities are places influx — and this applies equally to their population structure and social make-up. The last few decades have seen an accelerating change in age, household and income structures. Many of the challenges posed by this shift were anticipated by the Ministry for Building, Housing and Urban Development (now the Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Housing). For example, the „Experimental Housing and Urban Development" programme experimented with various models for responding to the ageing of the population and to the growing divergence of life-styles. In 1999 a programme was launched jointly by the federal government and the Länder with the title „Urban Quarters in need of special development — the Social City" with the aim of addressing the growing social polarisation found within towns and cities. This article discusses the actual challenges encountered in implementing this „quarter-orientated” approach. The concept of a „social city” was intended to be driven by an overarching vision and the consent of the civic society, and not simply to be the outcome of a number of piecemeal departmental measures and sectoral policies. It is seen, after all, as a matter not of compensatory but of enabling policy.