Planning theory.
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If neoliberalism is everything, maybe it is nothing
Fellow: Edwin Buitelaar keywords
Keywords: neoliberalism, urban planning, classical liberalism, planning theory |
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Linking planning theory, implementation analysis and planning law
Fellow: Rachelle Alterman abstract & keywords
Abstract: The privilege of being selected to write my academic autobiography for this special book faced me with the challenge of delving inwards into my “academic being”. I now realize that three seemingly unconnected themes have been intertwined in my work: planning theory, implementation analysis, and planning law. I picture them as the beacon, the compass, and the scale. Planning theory is the beacon because it provides planners with the normative-ethical light, with a sense of public mission. Implementation analysis is the compass because it offers realistic directions that planners should take in order to achieve their missions. Planning law is the scale – the proverbial symbol of justice. It helps planners to balance contending goals and interests. However, what is considered appropriate or just also differs from country to country. So, I have adopted the powerful perspective of cross-national comparison to provide an additional sense of scale. The connections among these ingredients are the backbone of this chapter. Interspersed are chronological accounts of my roles as a student, planning educator, builder of new academic institutions, and a researcher with a resolve to transfer knowledge across continents and disciplines. Keywords: planning theory, planning law, comparative analysis |
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On Marx’s human significance, Harvey’s right to the city, and Nussbaum’s capability approach
Fellow: Claudia Basta Authors, abstract & keywords
Abstract: In this article, I juxtapose David Harvey’s idea of the ‘right to the city’ and Martha Nussbaum’s central human capability of ‘control over one’s environment’, and I approach them from the perspective of their mutual convergence on Marx’s conception of human significance. In particular, I compare how Marx’s conception reverberates in Harvey’s right to the city as human right and in Nussbaum’s control over the environment as central human capability. I discuss how the language of capabilities through which the latter scholar articulates her political liberalism offers ‘important supplementations’ to the language of human rights through which the former scholar articulates his critical discourse. I conclude that the evaluative character of Nussbaum’s capability approach could advance a novel stream in planning theory centred on human development. To elaborate on such potential, I propose the notion of people’s ‘urban functionings’, and I discuss how this notion could provide new interpretative lenses through which to renew the idea of ‘right to the city’. Keywords: human capabilities, human significance, Marx, the right to the city, urban functionings |
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From justice in planning toward planning for justice: A capability approach
Fellow: Claudia Basta abstract & keywords
Abstract: This article discusses the relevance of Rawls’ Theory and Sen’s Idea of justice to contemporary planning theory by drawing on the writings of the two philosophers. Besides providing a comprehensive account of what the two respective frameworks imply for the foundation of public planning and for the relevant evaluative practice, this article proposes an interpretation of these theories that overcomes their polarization into competitive frameworks. The main position of this article is that the notion of capabilities set forward by Sen is in fact an extension of, rather than in tension with, the notion of primary goods set forward by Rawls. By discussing a number of simple planning cases, this article concludes that by connecting the sphere of just principles with deliberation on the actions which can advance those principles, Rawlsian “justice in planning” provides the basis for Senian “planning for justice.” Keywords: Amartya Sen, capability approach, John Rawls, primary goods, public reasoning. |
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Cities, Economic Inequality and Justice. Reflections and Alternative Perspectives
Fellow: Edwin Buitelaar Authors & overview
Authors: Edwin Buitelaar, Anet Weterings, Roderik Ponds Overview: Increasing economic inequality in cities, and the spatial translation of that into more segregated neighbourhoods, is top of the political agenda in developed countries. While the overall living standards have increased in the last century, the focus has now shifted from poverty to economic differences, with a particular focus on the gap between the very poor and the (ultra-)rich. The authors observe a common view among policy-makers and researchers alike: that urban-economic inequality and segregation are increasing; that this increase is bad; and that money and people (in the case of segregation) need to be redistributed in response. In six compact chapters, this book enriches and broadens the debate. Chapters bring together the literature on the social effects of economic inequality and segregation and question whether there are sizable effects and what their direction (positive or negative) is. The often conflated concepts of economic inequality (and segregation) and social injustice is disentangled and the moral implications are reflected on. The book is essential reading for students and academics of Planning Theory, Planning Ethics, Urban Geography, Urban Economics, Economic Geography and Urban Sociology. |
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Responding to a complex world: explorations in spatial planning
Fellow: Angelique Chettiparamb abstract & keywords
Abstract: This article discusses three aspects in relation to Complexity Theory. First, from an understanding of time and space specificities in the rise of theories, it discusses the wider socio-political reasons that may account for the rise of complexity theory and its interest for planners today. The rise of the third sector in governance, the decentralisation of the nation state, the rise of informality, the exponential rise of information and knowledge in every sphere of human and non-human activity and the rise of new normative ideologies are argued to provide the social context for interest in complexity theory. Second, this article positions complexity theory within general social science theories and argues that complexity theory best suits the second-order realm of social science theorisation. Third, this article positions complexity theory within planning theory and suggests that complexity theorists within planning might engage with the theory in three ways. These are by suggesting new ways of ordering of society and space by configuring or re-configuring planning systems in the first order, unravelling new opportunities for actors to work in society and space with largely self-organised entities and finally by searching for and discovering new dynamics for systems in the first order in society and space. Keywords: complexity theory, complexity theory and agency, complexity theory and meta-theory, complexity theory and structural analysis, multi-layered structures, rise of complexity theory, second-order theorisation, social science theory |
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Meta-operations, autopoiesis and neo-systems thinking: What significance for spatial planners?
Fellow: Angelique Chettiparamb abstract & keywords
Abstract: This essay introduces the theory of legal autopoiesis to planning. It discusses the main tenets of neo-systems thinking and elaborates on select claims and concepts from legal autopoiesis for planners. The claims and concepts are then used to re-analyse a published case study describing the after-effects of the implementation of a Compulsory Purchase Order in the regeneration of the Docklands in Cardiff. The re-interpretation draws attention to the added insights brought into focus by the theory. The significance of neo-systems thinking for planning is then discussed. The article concludes that the new epistemological framings connects the universal to the particular with implications for current understandings of planning concepts such as public interest, consensus, situatedness, contingency and justice. Neo-systems thinking thus deconstructs ‘how to’ dilemmas for planners from a non-normative standpoint at a meta-operational level. Keywords: compulsory purchase orders, legal autopoiesis, meta-operations, neo-systems thinking |
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Articulating ‘public interest’ through complexity theory
Fellow: Angelique Chettiparamb abstract & keywords
Abstract: The ‘Public interest’, even if viewed with ambiguity or scepticism, has been one of the primary means by which various professional roles of planners have been justified. Many objections to the concept have been advanced by writers in planning academia. Notwithstanding these, ‘public interest’ continues to be mobilised, to justify, defend or argue for planning interventions and reforms. This has led to arguments that planning will have to adopt and recognise some form of public interest in practice to legitimise itself. This paper explores current debates around public interest and social justice and advances a vision of the public interest informed by complexity theory. The empirical context of the paper is the poverty alleviation programme, the Kudumbashree project in Kerala, India. Keywords: Public interest, complexity theory, poverty alleviation |
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Does planning keep its promises? latin American spatial governance and planning as an ex-post regularisation activity
Fellow: Giancarlo Cotella authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Francesca Blanc, Juan E. Cabrera, Giancarlo Cotella, Anderson García, Juan Carlos Sandoval Abstract: Spatial governance and planning systems empower the public authority to steer and control spatial development. Whereas most comparative studies on how this occurs focus on the European continent, less knowledge is available on the global South incremental urbanisation. The cases of three Latin American countries – Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru – are here discussed, highlighting the role played by the logic of necessity (and the resulting necessity-market) as the main driver of plot-by-plot urbanisation. The analysis shows that, in the three countries, spatial governance and planning systems are scarcely capable to address societal needs ex-ante and limit their activity to ex-post regularisation actions. Keywords: Spatial governance and planning systems; necessity; incremental urbanisation; Latin America; global South |
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How do planners manage risk in alternative land development models? An institutional analysis of land development in the Netherlands
Fellow: Sebastian Dembski authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Philip O’Brien, Alex Lord, Sebastian Dembski Abstract: While risk is a key concern in property development, it tends to be discussed by planners only relative to the effects of regulatory planning on private sector risk. Yet planning encompasses a broad range of activities that go beyond its function of regulating private sector development. Despite active approaches to land development being commonly used across different planning contexts, frameworks for analysing public sector strategies to address risk are rarely discussed. We attempt to redress this deficit by investigating the actions of public sector development actors with regard to risk across three different land development models: public land development, land development by public-private partnership, and land readjustment. Using recent Dutch experience, we conduct an institutional analysis of each land development model in order to highlight the effects of alternative governance structures on risk as a particular transaction attribute, from the perspective of public sector planning. Our findings indicate the importance of highlighting the role of public risk in alternative models of land development where there may be a tendency to adopt institutional arrangements without due regard to this, and point to possible future applications of institutional analysis at the particular, rather than the general, level. Keywords: Risk, Land development models, the Netherlands, Institutional analysis, Transaction cost theory |
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‘Organic’ approaches to planning as densification strategy? The challenge of legal contextualisation in Buiksloterham, Amsterdam
Fellow: Sebastian Dembski authors, abstract & keywords
Abstract: Urban development in the Netherlands has been dominated by a master-planning approach in combination with a proactive land policy, but has recently witnessed the emergence of a new type of flexible planning, which is increasingly used as a densification strategy. The Buiksloterham area in Amsterdam is a pioneering case study of a more flexible approach to planning in the Netherlands, commonly known as organic transformation, combining formal and informal instruments in an innovative way. The case study demonstrates the tension between the planners’ desire for maximum flexibility in terms of land uses to enable mixed-use and organic development, and the legal certainty required by planning law (via the legally binding land-use plan), demanding exact predictions of future impacts to safeguard environmental norms. How can planning steer densification and enable mixed-use development, while at the same time accommodating the self-organising potential of society in an increasingly dynamic and unpredictable world? Using the concept of ‘legal contextualisation’, the paper argues that densification through organic approaches is possible with the current legislation but is not a panacea given the challenge of safeguarding environmental norms under conditions of uncertainty about the actual development. Keywords: organic development, planning and law, Netherlands, densification, land-use plan, legal certainty, self-organization. |
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Planificación estratégica de ciudades
Fellow: José Miguel Fernández-Güell overview
Overview: Este libro persigue dos fines principales: por un lado, actualizar y ampliar un campo de conocimiento, el de la planificación estratégica, que crece paulatinamente y que atrae la atención de las nuevas generaciones de urbanistas; por otro lado, mantener vivo el debate sobre la crisis y validez de la planificación urbana contemporánea, para lo que se utiliza siempre un tono optimista sobre las posibilidades de la buena gobernabilidad para superar los desafíos de futuro. La planificación estratégica se ha incorporado con naturalidad al acervo urbanístico. Pruebas de ello son los numerosos planes elaborados en todo el mundo, así como la creciente atención del entorno académico hacia este proceso. La pervivencia y vitalidad de la planificación estratégica han hecho que se perfeccionen muchas de sus herramientas básicas y que se hayan producido aportaciones innovadoras de otras áreas de conocimiento, lo que ha añadido mayor complejidad y sofisticación a estos procesos. Todo ello ha llevado al autor a revisar en profundidad la primera edición de este libro (1997). El resultado ha sido una transformación rigurosa y crítica de la estructura y los contenidos iniciales, entre cuyas nuevas aportaciones destacan: 1, la explicación de la crisis que vive la planificación urbana contemporánea, así como de los factores agravantes, internos y externos, que minan su recuperación; 2, la ampliación de las bases conceptuales de la planificación estratégica de ciudades, con los principios de sostenibilidad y gobernabilidad unidos a los de competitividad y habitabilidad; 3, la profundización en la metodología, con mayor detalle en las fases que atraviesa un plan estratégico; y 4, la introducción por primera vez de todo un abanico de instrumentos analíticos, como las técnicas de microsegmentación de la demanda urbana, el análisis de clusters, las matrices de posicionamiento, el diseño de escenarios de futuro y el marketing urbano. |
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Wicked problems and clumsy solutions: Planning as expectation management
Fellow: Thomas Hartmann abstract & keywords
Abstract: In 1973, Horst W Rittel and Malvin A Webber introduced the term ‘wicked problem’ in planning theory. They describe spatial planning as dealing with inherent uncertainty, complexity and inevitable normativity. This contribution picks up the concept of wicked problems, reflects on it from a planning-theoretical perspective, and proposes the use of Cultural Theory’s concept of clumsy solutions as a response to wicked planning problems. In discussing public participation processes in spatial planning, it is then shown what clumsy solutions mean for spatial planning. The four rationalities of Cultural Theory are then used to explain why public participation in planning can become wicked, and how these rationalities provide a response that copes with this wickedness. Keywords: polyrationality, participation, expectation management, uncertainty, complexity |
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From diversity to justice – Unraveling pluralistic rationalities in urban design
Fellows: Thomas Hartmann, Mathias Jehling abstract & keywords
Abstract: For Jane Jacobs, the city is a fundamental unit of diversity; she develops her ideas in the city around this key axiom. Diversity provides an ethical orientation and thus defines what a just city should achieve. For Jacobs, justice is represented by peoples' inherent right to ‘make cities’. According to Jacobs, cities become just places by their ability to facilitate the spontaneous dynamics among social fabrics and urban spaces to generate the beauty and value of cities. This contribution picks up this claim for diversity and develops a theoretical lens to explore how diversity is incorporated in urban design. We use a theory on pluralism—Cultural Theory—to analyse forms of managing urban space in different types of goods. This is applied to analyse four idealistic urban spaces in the city of Leipzig. Keywords: Justice, Economic goods, Cultural Theory, Grid and group, Urban space, Leipzig |
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The Varying Interpretations of Public Interest: Making Sense of Finnish Urban Planners’ Conceptions
Fellow: Raine Mäntysalo authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Sari Puustinen, Raine Mäntysalo, Karoliina Jarenko Abstract: During the past decades, the concept of public interest has been severely criticized. It nevertheless remains to be a key normative reference point against which public planning may be evaluated and justified. The article claims that there are multiple conceptions of public interest that coexist in everyday planning practice. These conceptions are grounded in the age-old debate on the duties of the State. In the article, four different approaches to public interest were recognized on the basis of two dimensions of the concept. These dimensions are individual/collective and regulation/non-regulation. The theoretical assumptions were tested with interview data of Finnish planning professionals. The coexistence of multiple conceptions of public interest was revealed. This ambiguity makes public interest dubious as a rhetorical tool. Without the explication of the discursive context, the concept is largely devoid of meaning. Thus, when truly seeking justification to planning decisions, with reference to “public interest”, the explication of the context and the discursive framework applied is necessary. Keywords: Public Interest, Common Good, Urban Planning, Planning Profession, State. |
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The “deliberative bureaucrat”: deliberative democracy and institutional trust in the jurisdiction of the Finnish planner
Fellow: Raine Mäntysalo authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Sari Puustinen, Raine Mäntysalo, Jonne Hytönen, Karoliina Jarenko Abstract: This article seeks to elaborate on Forester’s notion of the planner as a “deliberative practitioner”, aiming to add sensitivity to the institutional conditions of planning, focusing especially on Finland. In terms of trust, the concept of deliberative practitioner mostly focuses on interpersonal trust as a planner’s resource in mediating particular interests. Thereby, when applied to the Finnish context, institutional trust may be undermined as a key resource for the Finnish planner’s jurisdiction, justifying his/her proactive role and authority in bringing broader concerns to the planning agenda. This undermining prevents the acknowledgement of important institutional resources that the Finnish planner has in coping with the tensions between communicative ideals and neoliberal realities. A more context-sensitive and institutionally responsive theory of communicative planning is needed to help the planning professionals and other stakeholders conceive the deliberative ideals as supportive for the planners’ institutionally strong agency. Hence, the notion of the “deliberative bureaucrat”. The article seeks to develop an outline for such a theory by drawing upon studies of legal culture, the sociology of professions, deliberative democracy theory and the concept of trust. Keywords: Legal culture, trust, deliberative democracy, planner profession, neoliberalism, Finland |
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Habermas revisited: Resurrecting the contested roots of communicative planning theory
Fellow: Hanna Mattila abstract & keywords
Abstract: Communicative planning made its breakthrough in the late 1980s and 1990s, and has remained one of most discussed topics in the field of planning theory ever since. Seen against the notable popularity of communicative planning in the field of planning practice, it is striking how much criticism the theory of communicative planning has attracted during the past two decades. A fair share of this criticism has been levelled against the main theoretical source of inspiration of the theory, the philosopher Jürgen Habermas. This study revisits the Habermasian roots of communicative planning. It aims at resurrecting and recasting the Habermasian roots of communicative planning theory not only by replying to criticisms encountered by the theory but also suggesting some novel uses for Habermas's philosophy in the field of planning. Keywords: Communicative action, Communicative planning, Habermas, Planning theory, Geography, Planning and Development |
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Can collaborative planning go beyond locally focused notions of the “public interest”? The potential of Habermas's concept of “generalizable interest” in pluralist and trans-scalar planning discourses
Fellow: Hanna Mattila abstract & keywords
Abstract: This article approaches the concept of public interest in planning from the point of view of Patsy Healey’s collaborative planning theory on one hand and, on the other, from the perspective of Habermasian philosophy, one of the sources of inspiration for collaborative planning. In its original form, the theory of collaborative planning prioritized the ways in which local communities can communicatively define the interests they share and have an influence on the places they share under the current conditions of pluralism of ways of life. This article asks whether collaborative planning theory can also look beyond locally focused notions of the public interest and whether the theory is useful also for trans-scalar problem solving, for instance, in the multicultural metropolises where the different locally defined “public interests” often contradict with each other. This article compares Healey’s answers to this problem with ones that could be derived from Habermas’ philosophy. It argues that in order to look beyond the locally focused notions of the public interest, the theory of collaborative planning could benefit from revisiting Habermas’ concept of “generalizable interest” and especially Habermas’ positioning of this concept in his works published after The Theory of Communicative Action. Keywords: collaborative planning, communicative action, cultural pluralism, generalizable interests, public interest |
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Aesthetic justice and urban planning: Who ought to have the right to design cities?
Fellow: Hanna Mattila abstract & keywords
Abstract: This paper brings together two diverse approaches to urban planning. The first approach views planning as a means to distribute goods or welfare in society, and therefore considers the promotion of social justice to be the central objective of planning. The second approach highlights the role of planning as a means to produce aesthetically pleasing everyday surroundings. I will explore the concepts of ‘aesthetic welfare’ and ‘aesthetic justice’ developed by the philosopher Monroe Beardsley, and argue that an aesthetically pleasing environment is an important source of aesthetic welfare in society. My contention, then, is that the fair distribution of this welfare should be one of the objectives of public planning policies. This objective, however, is difficult to achieve, since the question cannot only concern the distribution of the aesthetically good environment. This is because there often is no agreement on the criteria for the aesthetically good environment. Thus, I will eventually reject the idea of aesthetic justice as distributive justice that Beardsley advocates. Instead, I will turn to some contemporary theories of justice that question the model of distributive justice, arguing that theories of justice should go beyond the distribution of goods, and encompass also the conception and production of goods. Thus, as I will maintain, aesthetic justice will be eventually best promoted by opening the aesthetic dimension of urban planning (among other dimensions of it) to public participation. Keywords: collaborative planning, distributive justice, social justice, urban aesthetics, urban design. |
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What can urban policies and planning really learn from John Rawls? A multi-strata view of institutional action and a canvas conception of the just city
Fellow: Stefano Moroni abstract & keywords
Abstract: One of the most influential theories of justice in planning theory and practice has been, without doubt, that of John Rawls. The very idea of the just city is indebted to Rawls’s view. However, the way in which Rawlsian theory of justice has been imported into planning often seems debatable. This article aims to discuss this aspect critically. The objective is not merely to discuss certain planning approaches inspired by Rawls; it is also to investigate, in more general terms, what meaning and role (any theory of) justice could and should have for planning and urban policies. In revisiting John Rawls’s view, the article is structured around two points: first, a critical discussion on how Rawls’s theory of justice has been generally applied to urban policies and planning; second, an exploration of an alternative way to interpret and apply certain Rawlsian insights (often undervalued) in this field. The article is not intended to defend and recommend Rawls’s normative theory as a whole (i.e. in its entirety), but to evidence certain Rawlsian contributions of a general nature that are particularly important. Nor is it the aim of this article to contribute directly to the development of a specific substantive idea of the just city; instead, it is to highlight fundamental methodological and analytical caveats that are crucial in this regard. Rather than a “theory of the just city”, this article develops a “meta-theory of the just city”: that is, an approach specifying precautions and conditions for any coherent and convincing just city theory. Keywords: Just city, John Rawls, difference principle, equity, institutions |
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Action and the city. Emergence, complexity, planning
Fellows: Stefano Moroni, Stefano Cozzolino abstract
Abstract: Since Jane Jacobs' ground-breaking work, cities have come to be seen as complex dynamic systems. This has had an impact on explanations of urban phenomena, but far less on the issue of planning. A serious consideration of the issue of complexity poses entirely new challenges for planning. This article will first of all consider a fundamental question: why is the city complex? The second question is the following: what is the role of planning in complex cities? |
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Conditions of actions in complex social–spatial systems
Fellow: Stefano Moroni, Stefano Cozzolino abstract
Abstract: The chapter deals with the limits of regulation in complex systems, and is structured around three main questions. (i) Why is the city a complex system? Aside from the city having multiple objects and elements it is complex due to the fact that ‘the city is action’. The city is the emergent result of actions and continuous interaction over time. While actions are intentional behaviours with their own internal logic, the interactions of plural actions imply the emergence of unintentional socio-spatial configurations and an overall uncertainty of the system. By acting, we (intentionally) bring about certain things, while (unintentionally) provoking other things. (ii) What are the conditions within which actions take place? ‘Conditions’ for actions change from place to place. We will distinguish different kinds of conditions for action according to two main variables: first, we consider their nature, which can be ‘social’ or ‘material’; second, we focus on their genesis, which can be independent from human intervention or dependent on human activity. (iii) On which conditions can planners (effectively) intervene (and how)? Although planning rules are only one of the many conditions that influence actions in space, they represent the only condition that can be directly altered by planners to avert or favour certain situations in complex systems. It is exactly because the city is a complex system that only certain types of rules are better suited to deal with it. This brings us to two types of rules: directional rules to directly obtain a given order of urban actions, and relational rules to indirectly foster self-coordination of urban actions. This reasoning brings to the fore regulations that are relevant for the planner to consider when dealing with a dynamic city in action. |
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Multiple functions of drawings
Fellows: Stefano Moroni, Giuseppe Lorini abstract & keywords
Abstract: In the twentieth century, the functions of written or spoken language were extensively studied. The functions of drawings were studied less. This was largely due to a kind of ‘verbal-centrism’ that dominated the general discussions on the mechanisms of interaction and communication. This article explores the various possible functions of drawings, focusing on architecture, urban design and planning. It initially attempts to build a typology of the different functions of drawing and, later, to discuss relevant aspects such as the relationship of each function with reality. The article concludes by dwelling on the theoretical and practical importance of this approach. |
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Graphic rules in planning: A critical exploration of normative drawings starting from zoning maps and form-based codes
Fellows: Stefano Moroni, Giuseppe Lorini abstract & keywords
Abstract: This article is focused on the rules that we create using drawings (designs, pictures, paintings, etc.) which will be termed ‘graphic rules’. Its attention is therefore not simply on the use of images in normative documents but also ‘as law’. We will delve into one of these types of graphic rules: that is, graphic rules used in urban planning. The fact that graphic rules are widespread in planning practices, and indeed typical of them, makes rules of this kind a particularly significant field of interest for planning theory. An important point to stress is that while analysis of images used descriptively has been under way for some time (although in many respects it is anything but conclusive, despite what is generally thought), analysis of images used as rules is still in its infancy. To gain deeper understanding of these particular and widespread forms of (graphic) rules is therefore both theoretically and practically important. Keywords: form-based codes, graphic rules, non-sentential thought, normative drawings, normativity, planning theory, zoning maps. |
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A multi-level rationality model for planning behaviour
Fellow: Camilla Perrone abstract
Abstract: This chapter is about rationality as a frame of reference for choice, planning and decision-making and that is susceptible to evolutionary and revolutionary tendencies. To begin with, rationality as it is commonly used in today’s planning debate no longer holds and the debate is progressing towards new understandings. This is a rather challenging and perhaps a somewhat controversial statement, knowing that the mainstream planning debate on rationality, communicative action and intersubjective reasoning is already far beyond the traditional, but still dominant, ‘rational choice theory’. This existing planning model positions two rationalities – the technical and the communicative – as opposing and complementary extremes that frame and explain planning behaviour in the governmental domain. Between these extremes, a multitude of realities regarding public choice, planning and decision-making can be assigned, each reality representing a specific course of action. However, to relate public choice, planning and decision-making to the governmental domain only is increasingly perceived as a limitation. Consequently, developments within planning practice require additional and innovative steps outside the existing rationality model for planning behaviour. This chapter proposes a multi-level expansion of the rationality model for planning behaviour. The rise of social movements, civil initiatives and collective action, as well as the ongoing democracy crisis, inspire the idea of seeking rationalities beyond the governmental domain. These new movements, initiatives and actions no longer relate to approaches within the traditional range from command-and-control government to shared governance. Consequently, planners and decision-makers are looking for frames of reference that include processes of self-governance. Building on the concepts of dynamic patterning, co-evolution and multiple layering, taken from the complexity sciences, a new rationality model will be constructed with multiple frames of reference for public choice, planning and decision-making. |
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Grounds for future gendered urban agendas: policy patterns and practice implications
Fellow: Camilla Perrone authors, abstract & keywords
Abstract: This paper takes the international debates of the UN and the EU regarding a New Urban Agenda as its starting point for reconceptualising a gendered urban agenda for the twenty-first century. While recalling the controversial debate on the implementation of a ‘gender mainstreaming strategy’, the paper reflects on the need to reconceptualise gender as a constitutive versus nominal essence to advance the debate. Theoretical criteria are suggested that mirror the complexity of gendered practices and create the conditions for their flourishing. These are further explicated for their policy relevance. The domains addressed include (inter)urban connectivity and the question of women’s food-growing/agriculture in a city-region context. Gender-sensitive policies, inspired by an analysis of an urban life experiment in Mondeggi, Italy, are suggested. Keywords: gender, urban agenda, policy making, planning theory, food, agriculture |
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‘Downtown Is for People’: The street-level approach in Jane Jacobs' legacy and its resonance in the planning debate within the complexity theory of cities
Fellow: Camilla Perrone abstract & keywords
Abstract: Jane Jacobs suggested that ‘just and diverse streets’ reflect the functioning of the city as ‘a problem of organised complexity’. The topic has recently been at the centre of the debate on her work. This paper looks at Jane Jacobs's reconstruction of the way a city works with reference to self-organisation and ethical aspects (trust and respect for diversity). The paper uses ‘Street-Level epistemology’ (SLe), which is a theory on the knowledge of ordinary people, in order to examine different ways to approach contemporary complex urban systems, resulting from myriads of self-organised practices and ‘vital little plans’. The paper employs Jacobs's early works on cities, in particular, a chapter in her book titled ‘Downtown Is for People’, to outline a proper Jacobsian Street-Level approach (SLa) substantiated by an ethical-cognitive component. This SLa is associated with the Complexity Theory of Cities (CTC), to improve the understanding of how complex, non-linear, discontinuous, and contingent urban systems work while constantly progressing and transforming. The paper draws on Jacobs's legacy and advocates progress through specific advancements in the debate around theoretical planning within CTC that describes the city as an emerging complex order. Keywords: Street-Level epistemology, Street-Level approach, Jane Jacobs, Ethics, Self-organisation, Complexity theory of cities, Planning theory |
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Embracing Uncertainty Without Abandoning Planning
Fellow: Ward Rauws authors, abstract & keywords
Abstract: The uncertainties that are part of the development trajectories of cities challenge spatial planners in designing productive interventions. This paper explores how complexity theory can support planners in dealing with these uncertainties intelligently. It presents a dynamic, time-sensitive understanding of spatial transformations that helps to clarify the interconnected and changeable nature of the underlying processes. The paper continues by proposing an adaptive planning approach that strengthens the responsiveness of urban areas to both expected and unexpected changes. The argument is made that adaptive planning first and foremost implies a focus on influencing and creating conditions for development, followed by attention to content and process. Based on an imaginary case of inner-city transformation, the paper distinguishes key conditions for guiding spatio-functional configurations and supporting capacity building of local actor coalitions. |
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Adaptive planning: Generating conditions for urban adaptability. Lessons from Dutch organic development strategies
Fellow: Ward Rauws authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Ward Rauws, Gert De Roo Abstract: The development of cities includes a wide variety of uncertainties which challenge spatial planners and decision makers. In response, planning approaches which move away from the ambition to achieve predefined outcomes are being explored in the literature. One of them is an adaptive approach to planning. In this paper, we argue that adaptive planning comes with a shift in focus. Instead of content and process, it is first of all about creating conditions for development which support a city’s capacity to respond to changing circumstances. We explore what these conditions may comprise and how they can be related to planning. First theoretically, by portraying cities as complex adaptive systems. Then empirically, through an evaluation of the practice of organic development strategies in which development trajectories are only minimally structured. Based on a review of 12 Dutch urban development projects, two of which are analysed in detail in this paper, we identify a series of conditions on spatio-functional configurations and the capacity building of local actors which enhance urban adaptability. Keywords: Uncertainty, urban planning, flexibility, responsiveness, self-organization |
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Responsibility, polity, value: The (un)changing norms of planning practices
Fellow: Federico Savini abstract & keywords
Abstract: To address the social, spatial and environmental problems of cities, planners often promote and engage with spatial practices that are intended to be experimental, innovative or transformative of existent processes. Yet, the actual nature of the novelty of these practices is often not explicit nor problematised by their proponents. This article develops an institutionalist framework to better appreciate the variegated nature of change in planning practices. It understands planning as embedded in, and simultaneously impacting on, three types of institutionalised norms: operational norms that define and allocate responsibilities among actors, collective norms that (re)produce planning polities and constitute the spatial-temporal context of their actions and constitutional norms that substantiate the idea of value defining the eligible stakeholders of a particular process. The article mobilises this framework and argues that contemporary planning practices convey a (a) shifting of responsibility towards individuals and households, (b) disaggregation of city regions through polycentric localism and (c) the reproduction of the process of accumulative valorisation of land. The article concludes reflecting on the complexity institutional change. Keywords: institutions, polity, practices, responsibility, value |
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Dilemmas of planning: Intervention, regulation, and investment
Fellows: Federico Savini, Willem Salet authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Federico Savini, Stan Majoor, Willem Salet Abstract: Planning through processes of “co-creation” has become a priority for practitioners, urban activists, and scientific researchers. However, urban development still shows a close instrumentalism on goal-specific tasks, means, and outcomes despite awareness that planning should enlarge possibilities for social change rather than constrain them. The article explores the dilemmas of planning agency in light of the contemporary need to open spaces for innovative practices. Planning is understood as a paradox; a structural tension between organization and spontaneity. The article provides a detailed profile of three specific dilemmas stemming from this condition. We distinguish and conceptually explore the dilemmas of intervention, regulation, and investment in current practices. The article provides a specific understanding of today’s planning dilemmas, exploring the key notions of “space and time” in the intervention dilemma, “material and procedural norms” in the regulation dilemma, and “risk and income” in the investment dilemma. We suggest that planning practice today needs to make sense of these dilemmas, navigating through their extremes to find new contextualized forms of synthesis. Keywords: dilemma, interventions, investments, regulations, urban development |
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Accounting for transaction costs in planning policy evaluation
Fellow: Sina Shahab authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Sina Shahab, J. Peter Clinch, Eoin O’Neill Abstract: The costs incurred in the design and implementation of planning policy instruments are not always considered sufficiently. In order to increase the efficacy of planning policy instruments, these transaction costs need to be taken into account. While such transaction costs are expected to vary according to their institutional design and arrangements, up to now there has been no systematic research concerned with how planners should consider transaction costs, and other institutional aspects, as evaluation criteria in planning policy analysis. This paper investigates how, and in which stages, these costs can be included in planning policy design and analysis. Using the literature of transaction costs and new institutional economics, this paper proposes a framework for integrating these costs into evaluating planning policy instruments. This framework consists of different factors that influence transaction costs in designing and implementing a planning policy instrument. Although some researchers have discussed the influence of factors concerning the characteristics of transactions and transactors, there has been limited consideration of the importance of factors related to the characteristics of a policy. This paper argues that policy characteristics, such as, simplicity, age of the policy, precision of the policy, policy approach, public involvement and participation, and policy credibility and consistency, can affect transaction costs in any policy. Therefore, the paper concludes that, in addition to transaction and transactor characteristics, a ‘policy characteristics’ category should be included to emphasise the importance of policy selection and design in transaction costs of a planning policy instrument. Keywords: Transaction costs, Planning policy instruments, Policy design and analysis, Evaluation criteria, New institutional economics |
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Impact-based planning evaluation: Advancing normative criteria for policy analysis
Fellow: Sina Shahab authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Sina Shahab, J Peter Clinch, Eoin O’Neill Abstract: Planning decisions have considerable impacts on both natural and built environments. The impacts of these decisions may remain for many decades and many are irreversible. In order to gain a better understanding of these long-standing impacts, planners require a systematic approach to evaluate the planning policy instruments utilised. The literature on planning evaluation shows that most studies have taken a conformance-based evaluation approach, where the success of a planning policy instrument is based on the degree of conformity between the policy outcomes and its intended objectives. While evaluating such criteria is necessary, it is hardly ever sufficient largely because of unintended effects. This paper proposes an impact-based approach to planning evaluation that incorporates all the impacts, intended and otherwise, that a planning policy instrument may bring about, irrespective of the initial objectives of the policy. Using a number of economic and planning theories, this paper argues that, in addition to conformance and performance, other normative evaluation criteria, such as, efficiency, equity, social and political acceptability, and institutional arrangements, should be included to emphasise the importance of planning decisions and their substantial impacts on quality of life, social justice, and sustainability. Keywords: Planning evaluation, policy analysis, welfare economics, New Institutional Economics, normative evaluation criteria |
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Agency and Structure in Urban and Regional Planning: An Illustrative Overview and Future Research Agenda
Fellow: Dominic Stead authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Eva Purkarthofer, Dominic Stead Abstract: There is extensive literature on the agency of actors in urban and regional planning which draws on a wide range of theoretical lenses and concepts. One of the recurring themes is the relationship between agency and structure—the mutual interdependence between individual actions and collective institutions, rules, and norms. This article provides a narrative overview of the wide range of literature on agency and structure in relation to spatial planning clustered around six interrelated themes: institutions, discretion, pragmatism, networks, leadership, and emotions. It identifies new avenues for research, paying particular attention to empirical, scalar, and methodological issues. Keywords: actor, institution, discretion, leadership, network, emotion, methods, scale, structure |
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Conceptualizing the Policy Tools of Spatial Planning
Fellow: Dominic Stead abstract & keywords
Abstract: While many policy tools can be used to develop spatial plans and implement their goals, there have been very few academic attempts to classify and illustrate the whole range of tools available. This article reviews the different ways in which planning tools have been conceptualized to date and highlights a wide variation in their interpretation. Building directly on literature from policy studies, a new classification is put forward which has many potential applications in studying spatial planning governance. As well as distinguishing between four main policy types (nodality, authority, treasure, and organization), the classification differentiates between procedural and substantive tools. Keywords: policy tools, governance, planning theory, public administration |
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Reinventing planning and planners: Ideological decontestations and rhetorical appeals
Fellow: Dominic Stead authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Simin Davoudi, Daniel Galland, Dominic Stead Abstract: This article contributes to the debate about ideologically motivated planning reforms. It aims to advance the debate by exploring how change is legitimised through forms of rhetorical persuasion. It shows how political ideologies become embedded in planning policies and practices through strategies of legitimation aimed at justifying specific ideas, beliefs and values as self-evident and inevitable. These legitimation strategies rely on distinctive rhetorical appeals to steer planning discourses, policies and institutions. By using short illustrative examples of ‘ideology in action’ from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands, the article shows that various combinations of rhetorical appeals to logos, ethos, pathos and doxa (logic, character, emotion and identity) are often simultaneously at work to naturalise contested planning reforms. Keywords: legitimation, planning reforms, political ideologies, rhetorical appeals |
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Complex private-common property rights in institutional and planning theories
Fellow: Aleksandar D. Slaev abstract & keywords
Abstract: This research focuses on a substantial gap between theories of institutions and property rights: institutions are accepted as complex social structures, but property rights are generally considered as simple, that is, either private or public. Although usually unacknowledged, this simplified understanding of property rights is actually based on Samuelson’s theory developed six decades ago. According to Samuelson, the inherent characteristics of goods determine whether they are privately or collectively consumed commodities. Although Samuelson does not propose a mandatory unambiguous link between types of consumption and types of ownership, his theory implies that in principle, private goods are consumed and owned privately and public goods are consumed and owned publicly. Thus, in Samuelson’s theory, institutions are redundant. This article maintains that people need institutions and organisations because resources are scarce, and most resources are too expensive for individual use/consumption. To access such resources, people form groups and create organisations and institutions, thereby reducing the individual costs of use and consumption. As complex systems, institutions generate complex property rights – common/collective to the members of an organisation, but private to that organisation (the union of members). Furthermore, institutions determine the patterns of interaction between planning and the market (as the two main mechanisms of exercising property rights) at all levels of the multilevel structure of organisations and society. The article argues that Buchanan’s theory of clubs offers a more accurate explanation of the nature of property rights as relevant to institutions. Keywords: common property rights, institutions, organisations, planning theory, planning–market relationship |
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Property rights and methods of nomocratic planning
Fellow: Aleksandar D. Slaev abstract & keywords
Abstract: This paper examines the methods of planning of complex systems. More precisely, it applies property rights analysis to the methodology of nomocracy, a leading branch of the theory of complexity in planning. To study the methodology of planning, the paper focuses on its objectives and methods, as well as the characteristics of nomocratic rules. It briefly examines the literature on the methods of planning of complex systems, the methods of the nomocratic approach, and the methods of regulation theory. It then develops a theoretical structure of the methodology of nomocratic planning by employing property rights analysis and finds that the purpose of nomocracy is the allocation of entitlements. Finally, to emphasise the importance of property rights, it discusses some specific findings of Holcombe’s work “Planning and the Invisible Hand”. Holcombe’s work is a well-developed study of the relevance of the nomocratic approach to market functions; planning practices, such as zoning; and topical issues of contemporary urban development, such as sprawl and related new urbanism/smart growth principles. This paper focuses on Holcombe’s particularly critical view of the latter. However, while the application of property rights analysis fully supports Holcombe’s understanding of the positive connection between nomocratic planning and the market, it also leads to a more favourable view of zoning and new urbanist principles. The paper concludes that the main objective and defining characteristic of nomocratic rules is that they serve to allocate property rights over commonly owned resources. Keywords: methodology of planning, nomocracy, planning and regulation, planning of complex systems, property rights |
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Types of planning and property rights
Fellow: Aleksandar D. Slaev abstract & keywords
Abstract: This research contributes to the debate concerning the nature of planning in complex systems, and particularly to the theory of teleocracy (the approach based on direct provisions aimed at specific ends) and nomocracy (the approach based on rules aimed at general rather than specific ends). It draws parallels with the theory of regulation and establishes a connection between rules, regulation and the nomocratic planning of social activities. It then suggests that a property rights analysis of the forms of social coordination/organisation can be instrumental in understanding the nature of social interactions. Based on the theory of property rights, the study concludes that the use of different types of planning, regulation or market mechanisms of social coordination is closely related to the concrete form of ownership over the resources employed in any given social activity. Keywords: planning theory, property rights, regulation, teleocracy and nomocracy |
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Justice of compensation for spatial flood risk management – comparing the flexible Austrian and the structured Dutch approach
Fellows: Thomas Thaler, Thomas Hartmann authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Thomas Thaler, Neelke Doorn, Thomas Hartmann Abstract: In view of the anticipated climate change, many countries face increasing risks of flooding. Since the end of the 20th century, the traditional hard flood protection measures have been increasingly complemented with spatial flood risk reduction measures. These measures, though in the public interest and as such, benefitting many people, almost inevitably affect landowners adversely. In other words, spatial flood risk reduction measures affect private land. The impact may extend from mere decreases in property values as a result of changes to zoning plans and to obligations to tolerate certain acts related to the construction or maintenance of water defence structures. Most of the time, implementation of spatial flood risk reduction measures thus discriminates between landowners, as some profit from better protection but others are affected negatively by the measures. Spatial flood risk reduction measures thus raise issues of social justice. Compensation plays a crucial role in flood risk management to mitigate the impact on land. How and in which cases this compensation is paid differs from country to country. Some national jurisdictions compensate for loss as a result of lawful administrative acts if and to the extent that it is considered unreasonable for this loss to be the full responsibility of the affected party. In this paper, we compare two different legal compensation frameworks in two European countries: Austria and the Netherlands. Based on a comparative analysis, we discuss how these different compensation schemes affect social justice, both in terms of substantive distributions but also in terms of procedural justice. Keywords: flood risk management, spatial flood prevention measures, compensation, spatial planning, social justice |
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Allocation of risk and benefits—distributional justices in mountain hazard management
Fellow: Thomas Thaler authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: Thomas Thaler, Andreas Zischg, Margreth Keiler, Sven Fuchs Abstract: As financing protection against mountain hazards becomes increasingly challenging and therefore investments have to be prioritized, dilemmas of justice emerge: some local governments and individuals benefit from natural hazard protection schemes, whereas others loose. Decisions on whom to protect often caused contradicting concepts of political understanding, which differ in interpretations of fair resource allocation and distribution. This paper analyses the impact of different philosophical schools of social justice on mountain hazard management in Austria. We used data from a spatially explicit, object-based assessment of elements at risk and compared potential distributional effects of three political jurisdictions. We found that—depending on the respective political direction—various local governments gain and others loose within the actual distributional system of mitigation strategies. The implementation of a utilitarian policy approach would cause that high income communities in hazard-prone areas would mainly benefit. Consequently, this policy direction would encourage the public administration to ignore their own failure in the past natural hazards management and prevention. On the other hand, following a Rawlsians approach mainly peripheral communities would gain from new policy direction who often show besides natural hazards problem mainly large socio-economic challenges. Finally, the most radical change would include the implementation of a liberalism policy, whereabouts the state only provides hazard information, but no further mitigation measures. These findings highlight the distributional consequences of future mountain hazard management strategies and point to the crucial selection of policy direction in navigating the selection of various adaptation schemes. Keywords: Social justice, Political economy, Risk reduction, Distributional consequences, Mountain hazards. |
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Political feasibility of 1.5°C societal transformations: the role of social justice
Fellow: Thomas Thaler authors, abstract & keywords
Authors: James J. Patterson, Thomas Thaler, Matthew Hoffmann, Sara Hughes, Angela Oels, Eric Chu, Aysem Mert, Dave Huitema, Sarah Burch, Andy Jordan Abstract: Constraining global climate change to 1.5°C is commonly understood to require urgent and deep societal transformations. Yet such transformations are not always viewed as politically feasible; finding ways to enhance the political feasibility of ambitious decarbonization trajectories is needed. This paper reviews the role of social justice as an organizing principle for politically feasible 1.5°C transformations. A social justice lens usefully focuses attention on first, protecting vulnerable people from climate change impacts, second, protecting people from disruptions of transformation, and finally, enhancing the process of envisioning and implementing an equitable post-carbon society. However, justice-focused arguments could also have unintended consequences, such as being deployed against climate action. Hence proactively engaging with social justice is critical in navigating 1.5°C societal transformations. |