The Approaches and Policies of Urban Renewal from" Urban Reconstruction" to "Sustainable Urban Regeneration"

This paper investigates the evolution of development approaches from “Urban Reconstruction” to “Sustainable Urban Regeneration” emphasizing “social sustainability” (the most recent approach).The decline of environmental quality, social status and economic vitality have been amongst the most fundamental problems in the concept of urban development. In recent decades, various policies have been implemented in cities, especially in inner cities, to address this critical situation. Developed countries have examined different approaches for solving in theory and practice such issues as the post-industrial shift from manufacturing to service industries, Fordism to post-Fordism, natural or non-natural disasters (earthquakes, war…), globalization and social change. Developing countries have also been confronted by such problems as a result of rapid growth and its consequences. By looking at these policies from an analytical and historical perspective, distinct stages from “Urban Reconstruction” to “Urban Regeneration” can be defined based on prominent attributes, political approaches and institutional frameworks. “Sustainable Urban Regeneration” has been propounded in recent years, introducing sustainability and sustainable development in the field of urban development. The question and the objective of this research are forged explicating this approach, its aspects and components; exploring “what the components and aspects of “Sustainable Urban Regeneration” are and how they could be defined under the recent approach of “Social Sustainability”. The research method is a "documentary" one based on "Content Analysis" and "Logical Argumentation". This paper seeks to summarize the approaches that have affected change since the mid- twentieth century and to define the components and dimensions of sustainable urban regeneration taking into account the most recent approach of social sustainability.