Showing papers in "Planning Theory & Practice in 2000"

Indicators for Sustainable Communities: A Strategy Building on Complexity Theory and Distributed Intelligence

Abstract: Indicators and performance measures have become an important element in policy initiatives relating to sustainability and to the re-invention of government. This article reviews the research and practice of indicator development and use, summarizing several key lessons from this review. One of the key lessons is that to be useful, indicators must be developed with the participation of those who will use and learn from them. The article then proposes a strategy for community indicators based upon the conception that cities are like living organisms functioning as complex adaptive systems. Three types of indicators are needed. System performance indicators are required to provide information to the public about the overall health of a community or region. Policy and program measures are required to provide policy-makers with feedback about how specific programs and policies are working. Rapid feedback indicators are required to assist individuals and businesses to make more sustainable decisions on a day-to...

When Strangers Become Neighbours: Managing Cities of Difference

Abstract: Beginning with Healey's definition of planning as ''managing our co-existence in shared space'', this article asks what it means to manage our co-existence in cities of difference. The focus on difference is justified by referring to an emerging literature that identifies the issues and challenges involved in planning for multiple publics. The article elaborates four different ways in which multicultural or polyethnic cities and regions are a challenge to planning systems, policies, practices, and education and identifies four possible ways of responding to these challenges. One of these responses, political dialogue, becomes the focus of the final section of the article, a case study of a recent conflict in inner Sydney between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents over land use. Reflecting on the implications of this case study, a more 'therapeutic' approach to planning practice in certain contexts is recommended, and this is compared with existing models of communicative action.

Living on Thin Air: The New Economy

Abstract: (2000). Living on Thin Air: The New Economy. Planning Theory & Practice: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 145-145.

Cities for Children: Children's Rights, Poverty and Urban Management

Abstract: (2000). Cities for Children: Children's Rights, Poverty and Urban Management. Planning Theory & Practice: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 146-146.

Re-defining Planning: The Roles of Theory and Practice

Abstract: (2000). Re-defining Planning: The Roles of Theory and Practice. Planning Theory & Practice: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 126-133.

Problems in the Theory and Practice of Planning Enforcement

Abstract: This article reviews current practice in planning enforcement in the UK and draws on regulation theory to assist in explaining it. It raises questions about planning authorities' current capacity to undertake effective enforcement, based on the evidence of recent government sponsored reviews. It draws on international experience in questioning whether the long established model of enforcement underpinning UK practice is universally appropriate. Finally, it seeks to promote a debate about the theory, as well as the practice, of planning enforcement, as a means of improving both, in an era of increasing public concern about environmental rights and new political priorities for environmental regulation.

Plans, Planning and Tragic Choices

Abstract: Communicative planning theory, with its emphasis on collaborative processes and consensus-building, has become widely accepted as a new and dominant paradigm for planning practice. It appeals especially to planners concerned with the potential for creating social change through planning processes. It also attracts those trying to escape from the narrow confines of traditional rational policy analysis. It avoids the pessimism of structuralist notions of the role of planners by identifying cracks in the structure that allow agency to survive. However, there are pitfalls in the communicative emphasis on reaching consensus which need to be avoided. This is illustrated through a study of recent debates about the character of the French Quarter in New Orleans and the role of plans in sustaining this. Qualitative research, utilizing conversations with neighbors in New Orleans' French Quarter as well as documentary sources, demonstrates the limitations of consensus-building processes when conflict between visions...

Planning and Public Empowerment: Third Party Rights in Development Control

Abstract: Public protest surrounding development control decision-making is an increasingly significant aspect of the planning process and raises important questions about future legitimacy of the system This article seeks to address the central question of what role the third party rights might play in defining the relationship of the public to the planning process The discussion explores the nature of rights and their role in the UK's planning system before examining the views of key players in the development process to both the motivation for rights and their reactions to the prospect of their introduction The article concludes by noting the compelling case for equal rights in planning and the apparent failure of recent government policy reviews to acknowledge their importance

Conservation, Conservatives and Consensus: The Success of Conservation under the Thatcher and Major Governments, 1979–1997

Abstract: The British Conservative governments between 1979 and 1997 are usually associated with a strident agenda of economic liberalism, combined with a centralization of political power, which affected land-use planning along with other policy spheres. However, not only did the conservation of the historic environment escape these forces, its policy significance strengthened during the period. In a time associated with the breakdown of post-war political consensus, conservation policy goals achieved a virtually unchallenged consensus for the first time. This article examines how central government policy developed during this period before examining a range of possible explanations for these outcomes. These include political attitudes and support, electoral significance, conservation lobbies, the commodification and political symbolism of heritage and the dominant ideology thesis. Finally, the article speculates on how stable and enduring the conservation consensus may prove.

Sustainable Development: Can the Vision be Realized?

Abstract: (2000). Sustainable Development: Can the Vision be Realized? Planning Theory & Practice: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 259-284.

Environmental Compensation: Can the British Planning Regime Learn from Germany?

Abstract: This article reviews the potential for establishing in the British planning regime a universal obligation for environmental compensation of greenfield development, drawing on the emerging experience of Germany with this measure. It is concluded that, subject to compensation being employed only after the possibilities of avoidance and mitigation have been exhausted, it would help to secure local environmental capital against erosion by cumulated small developments, which pass through the net of environmental assessment. It is suggested that it might do this better than a greenfield tax. It might also contribute to managing land consumption per se.

'From Pillar to Post?' A One Stop Shop Approach to Planning Delivery

Abstract: The development of the one stop shop approach is seen as a means to providing a customer focused planning service. Research in England and Scotland, for example, suggests a tendency to the emergence of a common 'one stop shop' approach in terms of an administrative model with defined responsibilities and relations between those departments involved in the planning and development service. This article reviews the research evidence about the effectiveness of the 'one stop shop' approach to integrated planning and development functions. It reports on the nature of emerging arrangements for securing such an integrated approach in the interests of planning customers. The article suggests there are advantages to this form of planning service.

Technically Speaking: Planning Theory and the Role of Information in Making Planning Policy

Abstract: Understanding how technical information is used in planning is important: the ability to carry out and interpret technical analysis is part of the basis for the legitimacy of planning as a profession. The role and influence of technical information in planning is, however, contested. The article presents a conceptual framework that has been tested in research that examined the use of technical information in British planning policies at a local level. The article concludes that planners are engaged in processes of mediation and negotiation to make policy and implement it. They are not involved in a simple process of rational choice between alternatives. Thus, technical information is not influential purely because it is 'correct' in some sense, but because of the way it is incorporated into the processes through which land use change is initiated, controlled and evaluated. These processes are structured by the rules and procedures created by the institutionalization of planning activities, and the use of ...

Design Control Policies for Small Areas: The Dacorum Residential Area Character Study

Abstract: Over the last 15 years, increasing emphasis within planning has been laid on the layout and physical form of settlements. Unfortunately, planning systems in developed countries have not, in general, possessed significantly powerful methods to respond to this trend. Various moves have been made in a number of countries to correct this situation. One attempt to fill the gap has been the design area approach devised in the UK by the first author. This was introduced into planning practice by the second author at Dacorum Borough Council in the form of its Residential Area Character Study. The method behind this study is fully described. The study has been used in development control practice and subsequently absorbed into the local development plan. Contrary to what might have been predicted, this has proved a remarkably trouble free process and reasons for this are advanced.

Contested Countryside: The Rural–Urban Fringe in North America

Abstract: that can be made to both practical projects and to more participative styles of decision-making. Knightsbridge-Randall ’s chapter on youth introduces a cultural dimension that is perhaps lacking in the other contributions. In this she considers the ways in which cultural diversity can be related not only to the present but also to ancestral homelands. The contribution of the voluntary sector is explored in Clark & Netherwood’ s chapter on their ® ndings in Wales. Here, LA21 has been seen to provide a means of developing partnership working which perhaps has been more dif® cult to achieve before. The coincidence of LA21 initiatives and the restructuring of local government is suggested to have had a dynamic effect on this process. However, the authors are seeking more for LA21Ð the development of a tool that enables communities to evaluate the plans and policies with which they are confronted. Thus, in addition to the positive outcomes that LA21 can have, the process is seen to be one of generating politicization and potentially activism. The book also examines the ways in which LA21 processes have had an impact on community life at the local level. Parker & Selman discuss the contribution made to `civicness’ , not least through seeking to a reconnect individuals and communities with the consequences of their actionso (p. 21). However, they also identify the central features of success as the presence of `catalytic personalities’ or s̀uper networkers’ Ð champions who have taken up LA21 as their cause even within a local authority context. Much of this book, therefore, is derived from real experience but it also contains advocacy for changeÐ what the authors would like to see occurring in addition to their observations on the present. As such it presents a curious mixture. For those who wish to learn about successful means of developing inclusive LA21 approaches, the information is here yet it also includes some prescription such as through the a vision for youtho (p. 90). As with any book dealing with an emerging policy area, there is a tendency towards description rather than critical evaluation. However, such an approach can be invaluable both in assisting understanding and sharing practice. For future studies, it can also provide a marker of the state of policy development and progress. Overall, this is a useful book to dip into for stimulating ideas.

Can't See the Trees for the Wood

Abstract: The forests of south west Western Australia have become sites for debate and conflict in the Regional Forest Agreement process. Different discourses, frames and story-lines are used to interpret and contest the policy agendas of natural resource management. Actors communicate their viewpoints through various means. Use of symbolism is rife. To date, however, a more environmmentally-based discursive reframing has not penetrated the resource-dominated discourse of Western Australian forest management. Much strategic institutional work is necessary if actors are to see both the wood and the trees.

Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Joint Structure Plan

Abstract: (2000). Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Joint Structure Plan. Planning Theory & Practice: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 147-147.

Some Similar and Some Other Scenes from the South

Abstract: The relationship between planning theory and practice in South Africa has been even more problematic than Robin Thompson implies in relation to Britain. As theory arrived in the country at a time in which Apartheid was taking on an increasingly draconian nature, the planning theory of the day, couched as it was in the l̀anguage of the enemy’, that is to say democracy and Marxism, was generally scorned by practitioners. Some of this scorn may of course have been more about expediency than ideology; planning was trying to establish itself as a `standalone profession’, and being in cahoots with the enemy would not have been wise. On a less ideological level, planning theory was simply not (perceived to be) of use to the three broad ® elds of planning practice of the dayÐ land use control and land development, structure planning and Apartheid-infused national policy formulation. The reality of it was just the opposite. If ever there were a time and a place in need of theory it was then. While still not satisfactory, the ® ve years since the transition to democracy in 1994 have seen some improvements in the relationship between theory and practice, particularly with respect to policy formulation and strategic planning. These improvements can primarily be attributed to the appointment in national government departments of younger planners, fresh from planning school, far more attuned to developments in other countries and keen to experiment with new theoretical concepts. This has, however, not been the case in the ® eld of land use control and land development. Here experience is seen as supremely important and theoretical considerations rarely regarded as pertinent. Theory is only regarded of relevance where it can convince others into agreeing with often highly contentious applications for land development. The lack of t̀heory’ with such persuasive powers has often been lamented from these quarters. During the last ® ve years three other changes in planning practice, very similar to those described by Thompson in the UK have taken place. These changes have generally been positive, but they have not improved the theory± practice relationship. The ® rst, and most probably the most signi® cant, has been the steady in-movement of `non-planners’ into planning largely as a result of the bad reputation town planning acquired through its link with Apartheid and the (perceived) inability of the `Apartheid-planners’ to play meaningful roles in the new planning system. Not having undergone formal town planning training, most of these new entrants have had very limited exposure to planning theory. The second change concerns the nature of planning practice in South Africa, which, as in the UK, has become more strategic, more participatory and more integrated. The clearest manifestation of this being the Integrated Development Plans that every local authority in the country has to prepare. In the participatory planning arenas in which these plans are generated, the successful practitioners are most often those with good communication skills, local knowledge and networks, and not (necessarily) those schooled in the theory that describes these communicative events. The last change is related to the arrival in South Africa, as in the UK, of best practice, benchmarks and performance contracts. It is these management tools that have come to provide the

Leaving Space for Thought: Reflections of a New Recruit

Abstract: In the planning theory literature, there has been an attempt in the 1990s to stake a claim for communicative action theory as the new paradigm (Innes, 1995). While I disagree with any attempt to stake a claim to a single theoretical solution, I do personally believe that communicative theory has a great deal to offer practitioners, and it will hopefully re-shape practice away from its historic adversarial and regulatory focus and towards more negotiation, mediation, consensus-building, and working with communities rather than working in a top-down way. But (any) theory, in itself, is not enough. It is abstract and general, and usually context-less. It takes a great deal of inventiveness by practitioners to turn theory into something applicable, to operationalize it. All too often we theorists/academics shy away from this task, retreating as Thompson rightly says, into obscure language and into debating the ® ner points of theory, to impress other academics, rather than to address actual problems of implementation. It is this that frustrates your hard-working practitioner and widens the perceived gap between theory and practice. I can only echo Thompson’s hope that in the pages of this journal there will be an openness to learning from both sides.

Commentary: The Magpie Profession

Abstract: Healey, P. (1997) Collaborative Planning: Shaping Places in Fragmented Societies (Basingstoke, Macmillan). McLoughlin, J. B. (1969) Urban and Regional Planning: A Systems Approach (London, Faber and Faber). Newman, P. W. G. & Thornley, A. (1996) Urban Planning in Europe (London, Routledge). Taylor, N. (1998) Urban Planning Theory Since 1945 (London, Sage). RTPI (1994) Survey of the Specialised Studies Offered by Planning Schools (London, RTPI). RTPI (1997) Members’ Survey (London, RTPI). Wildavsky, A. (1973) If planning is everything, maybe it’s nothing, Policy Sciences, 4, pp. 127± 153.

Theory and Practice Should Mix

Abstract: The ® rst Interface explores the relationship between theory and practice within planning; put another way, between ideas and experience. The choice of this topic directly re ̄ ects the underlying mission of the journal and the Editors’ premise that given the urgency and complexity of the concerns confronting practice that a thinking, learning planning community should be both practically astute and theoretically informed. The relationship between theory and practice in planning has rarely been unproblematic. This unease and the sometimes pejorative stereotypes that result do little to progress planning’s contributions to the very real problems confronting cities and regions around the world. The purpose behind this Interface is to unpack the key dimensions of the debate surrounding the interrelationships between theory and practice. The discussion is structured around a key article and a series of four commentaries. Robin Thompson uses his experience of both the academic and practice communities in Britain to re ̄ ect on the current pressures impacting on planning practice and the role that theories and ideas might play in setting new agendas and pointing to innovative solutions. The series of commentaries that then follow explore the issues raised in Thompson’s article in the light of the contributors’ distinctive experiences. Leonie Sandercock reviews the tensions between theory and practice through two case studies drawn from her work in Australia. David Percival re ̄ ects on his transition from university to practitioner and the dif® culties of ® nding space for thought. Mark Oranje and Paulo Correia draw on their distinctive experiences of planning in South Africa and continental Europe, most especially southern Europe, to highlight on the one hand contrasting traditions in the relationship between theory and practice in these contexts as against Britain and on the other striking similarities in the key concerns they identify for the future. Despite signi® cant differences in their experiences, all the contributors emphasize that for planning to ̄ ourish, and more importantly make a valuable contribution to the process of place making, practice and theory are mutually dependent. Given this context it is the Editors’ hope that the concerns and issues raised in these discussions will stimulate a vigorous and lively debate, which will endure beyond the ® rst issue of this journal. All the subsequent comments represent the personal views of the authors and not the organizations for which they work.