Experimental Practices for the Re-Valorisation of Vacant Assets through Community Use: The Case of One Kilburn

This presentation critically discusses the implementation of an emerging model of community-state-private landlords partnerships in the United Kingdom, designed to bring into community use and ownership vacant spaces in urban areas characterised as high streets and town centres, where the social and economic value of the retail-dominated landscape has been placed under scrutiny through problematic narratives such as the “death of the high street” both before and significantly after the Covid19 pandemic. The empirical study focuses on One Kilburn, an alliance of community groups, residents and businesses in Kilburn (London) supported and funded by local and central government, and one of 7 pilots of “community improvement districts” (CID), a national policy initiative to promote civic and economic renewal by focusing on the social economy. Within this policy framework, great emphasis is given to linking vacant physical assets (and their landlords) to community businesses and organisation. This effort includes the creation of ad-hoc agencies, funds, platforms, knowledge models, and partnerships between the local state, landlords, think tanks, community which are here critically examined, as a form of experimental urbanism delivered by local government (Thompson and Lorne, 2023) in the context of ongoing adjustments to austerity. Issues of inclusion and exclusion, of who is called to participate in the shaping of the outcomes of this asset re-activation and re-valorisation models are also discussed. The study is based on two years of participatory action research which included participation in over 20 six-weekly meetings of One Kilburn from its launch in October 2022, and active contribution to knowledge production through the drafting of internal papers on issues of community governance, community funding, urban planning. Thompson, M. and Lorne, C. (2023) Designing a New Civic Economy? On the Emergence and Contradictions of Participatory Experimental Urbanism. Antipode 55.6