A conceptual history of livability

Abstract

The quest for livability is currently a key urban issue throughout the world. Judging from policy programs, political manifestos and business philosophies, maintaining or improving a city's degree of livability appears to be one of the main concerns of a variety of actors, ranging from the spheres of local and state government to civil society and business. Critical urban geographers have characterized livability as a ‘discursive frame that both enables and legitimates entrepreneurial policy initiatives’. Building on this critical interpretation of livability discourse this paper studies livability from the perspective of (urban) democracy. Through an investigation of the conceptual history of livability in the Netherlands, views on urban governance and citizenship are identified. The paper makes clear that over the past half a century, the concept of livability has played various roles in different contexts. In the late 1950s, livability emerged as a key concept in Dutch rural geography against the background of concerns over rural citizenship. In the 1960s and 1970s, livability was at the core of post-materialist values that rose to prominence in the urban arena. Urban social movements used the concept to contest the excesses of the prevailing growth-centered urban politics and the doctrine of modern functionalism. In the 1970s and 1980s livability was also used by urban government to promote a new kind of active citizenship, while in the 1990s livability was increasingly used by urban government and housing corporations to influence the social composition of urban neighborhoods.

Keywords:

• livability
• entrepreneurial urban policy
• governance
• (active) citizenship
• urban social movements
• urban growth machine

Notes

Michael Leapman, ‘Americans’ Tendency to Vote with their Feet Alarms City Planners', The Times, 30 May 1971.

This insight is based on ongoing research by Korrie Melis, University of Groningen, website: http://www.bedreigdbestaan.nl/bedreigd-bestaan-2009/het-onderzoek/ (accessed 15 July 2010).

The Dutch translation has an added subtitle: ‘Issues of Growth and Livability’.

Amsterdam City Archive, Library, No. 15009/2652. Items concerning the activities of the Livability Committee in Amsterdam-East.

‘Amsterdam Provo's Active in Rotterdam’, Leidse Courant, 16 May 1966.