{"id":{"repo_id":"oxford-brookes","oai_identifier":"tle:b7b2e573-bf4b-4ba7-9171-ea35173e7087:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/oxford-brookes/tle:b7b2e573-bf4b-4ba7-9171-ea35173e7087:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1","repository":{"repo_id":"oxford-brookes","name":"Oxford Brookes University","base_url":"https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/oai"},"display":{"title":"Vitality and viability in the contemporary English High Street: Understanding the changing relationship between the commercial ‘viability’ and social ‘vitality’ of town centres in a period of economic transition","abstract":"The challenge, and in some places the crisis, facing the English town centre is the focus of much political and academic debate. This research analyses the changing relationship between the social vitality and commercial viability in the English town centre from 1945 to the early 2020s, and in particular, it asks how town centres might continue to be a relevant social and civic, as well as a commercial hubs. This research builds on previous studies about place - in particular town centres, but reviews these in terms of the co-dependence between their commercial viability and social vitality, identifying the key variables in this relationship. Underpinned by place theory, the research proposes a resetting of the way the challenge facing the town centre should be examined. The research employs a range of empirical methods, which include a hybrid deductive and inductive approach guided by a conceptual analytical framework – the Adaptive Resilience Model (ARM). This is developed to create a methodical analytical environment for an investigation into the future of town centres and the high street. The conceptual analytical framework guides the research which includes two in-depth case studies of English town centres. The findings from the ARM are interrogated using both a macro-lens (to thematically group issues that are likely to impact most, if not all, town centres), and a micro-lens (to thematically group those issues specific to the case study locations). The main findings of the study are first that the town centre has evolved over three distinctive phases from 1945 to the early 2020’s: specifically that the challenge facing the relevance of town centre has intensified and changed, but that the strategy and policy environment remains remarkably similar from the 1980s to the present, relying on place management strategies and introspective policy, which largely ignores other commercial formats. Second, the research shows that the market in which the town centre now operates has changed significantly, although town centres remain authentic and unique places that share social and civic importance, the commercial viability of many has significantly fallen away. Based on this, the research suggests that there is an opportunity to think-big and re-evaluate the way in which the value of the town centre might be gauged – as a social and civic, as well as a commercial and consumption space. A novel concept is proposed, based on these findings, summarised as the complexity of urban ecology – and a set of new proposals for the future of the town centre grounded in place theory are presented. The thesis contends that the ARM model of town centre analysis and diagnosis can be applied to other cases of town centres in the UK facing decline, recognising their morphological variety at a range of scales. Finally, the research argues that, the ARM method can be developed as a place analysis tool in practice as well as in theory.","abstract_html":"The challenge, and in some places the crisis, facing the English town centre is the focus of much political and academic debate. This research analyses the changing relationship between the social vitality and commercial viability in the English town centre from 1945 to the early 2020s, and in particular, it asks how town centres might continue to be a relevant social and civic, as well as a commercial hubs. This research builds on previous studies about place - in particular town centres, but reviews these in terms of the co-dependence between their commercial viability and social vitality, identifying the key variables in this relationship. Underpinned by place theory, the research proposes a resetting of the way the challenge facing the town centre should be examined. The research employs a range of empirical methods, which include a hybrid deductive and inductive approach guided by a conceptual analytical framework – the Adaptive Resilience Model (ARM). This is developed to create a methodical analytical environment for an investigation into the future of town centres and the high street. The conceptual analytical framework guides the research which includes two in-depth case studies of English town centres. The findings from the ARM are interrogated using both a macro-lens (to thematically group issues that are likely to impact most, if not all, town centres), and a micro-lens (to thematically group those issues specific to the case study locations). The main findings of the study are first that the town centre has evolved over three distinctive phases from 1945 to the early 2020’s: specifically that the challenge facing the relevance of town centre has intensified and changed, but that the strategy and policy environment remains remarkably similar from the 1980s to the present, relying on place management strategies and introspective policy, which largely ignores other commercial formats. Second, the research shows that the market in which the town centre now operates has changed significantly, although town centres remain authentic and unique places that share social and civic importance, the commercial viability of many has significantly fallen away. Based on this, the research suggests that there is an opportunity to think-big and re-evaluate the way in which the value of the town centre might be gauged – as a social and civic, as well as a commercial and consumption space. A novel concept is proposed, based on these findings, summarised as the complexity of urban ecology – and a set of new proposals for the future of the town centre grounded in place theory are presented. The thesis contends that the ARM model of town centre analysis and diagnosis can be applied to other cases of town centres in the UK facing decline, recognising their morphological variety at a range of scales. Finally, the research argues that, the ARM method can be developed as a place analysis tool in practice as well as in theory.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Pinkney, Paul Edward"],"institution":"Oxford Brookes University","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Reeve, Alan","Pinkney, Paul E"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021","date_published":"2021","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:42:43Z","subjects":[],"languages":["en"],"rights":["All rights reserved"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.24384/94gc-5w85","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Reeve, Alan","Pinkney, Paul E"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Pinkney, Paul Edward"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2021"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Oxford Brookes University"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["thesis"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["All rights reserved"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://doi.org/10.24384/94gc-5w85","https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/file/b7b2e573-bf4b-4ba7-9171-ea35173e7087/1/240317 Vitality and viability in the contemporary English High Street, Pinkney for submission Sept 2021.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The challenge, and in some places the crisis, facing the English town centre is the focus of much political and academic debate. This research analyses the changing relationship between the social vitality and commercial viability in the English town centre from 1945 to the early 2020s, and in particular, it asks how town centres might continue to be a relevant social and civic, as well as a commercial hubs. This research builds on previous studies about place - in particular town centres, but reviews these in terms of the co-dependence between their commercial viability and social vitality, identifying the key variables in this relationship. Underpinned by place theory, the research proposes a resetting of the way the challenge facing the town centre should be examined. The research employs a range of empirical methods, which include a hybrid deductive and inductive approach guided by a conceptual analytical framework – the Adaptive Resilience Model (ARM). This is developed to create a methodical analytical environment for an investigation into the future of town centres and the high street. The conceptual analytical framework guides the research which includes two in-depth case studies of English town centres. The findings from the ARM are interrogated using both a macro-lens (to thematically group issues that are likely to impact most, if not all, town centres), and a micro-lens (to thematically group those issues specific to the case study locations). The main findings of the study are first that the town centre has evolved over three distinctive phases from 1945 to the early 2020’s: specifically that the challenge facing the relevance of town centre has intensified and changed, but that the strategy and policy environment remains remarkably similar from the 1980s to the present, relying on place management strategies and introspective policy, which largely ignores other commercial formats. Second, the research shows that the market in which the town centre now operates has changed significantly, although town centres remain authentic and unique places that share social and civic importance, the commercial viability of many has significantly fallen away. Based on this, the research suggests that there is an opportunity to think-big and re-evaluate the way in which the value of the town centre might be gauged – as a social and civic, as well as a commercial and consumption space. A novel concept is proposed, based on these findings, summarised as the complexity of urban ecology – and a set of new proposals for the future of the town centre grounded in place theory are presented. The thesis contends that the ARM model of town centre analysis and diagnosis can be applied to other cases of town centres in the UK facing decline, recognising their morphological variety at a range of scales. Finally, the research argues that, the ARM method can be developed as a place analysis tool in practice as well as in theory."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Vitality and viability in the contemporary English High Street: Understanding the changing relationship between the commercial ‘viability’ and social ‘vitality’ of town centres in a period of economic transition"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Reeve, Alan","Pinkney, Paul E"],"dc:creator":["Pinkney, Paul Edward"],"dc:date":["2021"],"dc:description":["The challenge, and in some places the crisis, facing the English town centre is the focus of much political and academic debate. This research analyses the changing relationship between the social vitality and commercial viability in the English town centre from 1945 to the early 2020s, and in particular, it asks how town centres might continue to be a relevant social and civic, as well as a commercial hubs. This research builds on previous studies about place - in particular town centres, but reviews these in terms of the co-dependence between their commercial viability and social vitality, identifying the key variables in this relationship. Underpinned by place theory, the research proposes a resetting of the way the challenge facing the town centre should be examined. The research employs a range of empirical methods, which include a hybrid deductive and inductive approach guided by a conceptual analytical framework – the Adaptive Resilience Model (ARM). This is developed to create a methodical analytical environment for an investigation into the future of town centres and the high street. The conceptual analytical framework guides the research which includes two in-depth case studies of English town centres. The findings from the ARM are interrogated using both a macro-lens (to thematically group issues that are likely to impact most, if not all, town centres), and a micro-lens (to thematically group those issues specific to the case study locations). The main findings of the study are first that the town centre has evolved over three distinctive phases from 1945 to the early 2020’s: specifically that the challenge facing the relevance of town centre has intensified and changed, but that the strategy and policy environment remains remarkably similar from the 1980s to the present, relying on place management strategies and introspective policy, which largely ignores other commercial formats. Second, the research shows that the market in which the town centre now operates has changed significantly, although town centres remain authentic and unique places that share social and civic importance, the commercial viability of many has significantly fallen away. Based on this, the research suggests that there is an opportunity to think-big and re-evaluate the way in which the value of the town centre might be gauged – as a social and civic, as well as a commercial and consumption space. A novel concept is proposed, based on these findings, summarised as the complexity of urban ecology – and a set of new proposals for the future of the town centre grounded in place theory are presented. The thesis contends that the ARM model of town centre analysis and diagnosis can be applied to other cases of town centres in the UK facing decline, recognising their morphological variety at a range of scales. Finally, the research argues that, the ARM method can be developed as a place analysis tool in practice as well as in theory."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://doi.org/10.24384/94gc-5w85","https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/file/b7b2e573-bf4b-4ba7-9171-ea35173e7087/1/240317 Vitality and viability in the contemporary English High Street, Pinkney for submission Sept 2021.pdf"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:publisher":["Oxford Brookes University"],"dc:rights":["All rights reserved"],"dc:title":["Vitality and viability in the contemporary English High Street: Understanding the changing relationship between the commercial ‘viability’ and social ‘vitality’ of town centres in a period of economic transition"],"dc:type":["thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:42:43Z"}