Showing papers in "Planning Theory & Practice in 2006"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe a case in western Victoria where non-Indigenous planners are forging new relationships with Indigenous land claimant groups, and highlight the further theoretical and practical work to be done to fully realise the complexities of planning in (post)colonial settings.
Abstract: Planning processes that make space for Indigenous peoples in Australia appear to herald more inclusive and socially just practices, in the critical collaborative tradition, as they respond to Indigenous rights-claims and aspirations. The article describes a case in western Victoria where non-Indigenous planners are forging new relationships with Indigenous land claimant groups. The case extends current theorisations about more collaborative and socially just practices of planning in multicultural settings, and highlights the further theoretical and practical work to be done to fully realise the complexities of planning in (post)colonial settings.
98 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the nature, pace and implications of climate change have been the subject of academic and scientific debate for many years, and it is intriguing, even in the few months since we...
Abstract: Concerns about the nature, pace and implications of climate change have been the subject of academic and scientific debate for many years. However, it is intriguing, even in the few months since we...
88 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that planning analysts might combine cognitive and emotional ideas about planning using research insights from the work of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio and the conceptual insights of philosopher Martha Nussbaum.
Abstract: Planning analysts taught to separate cognitive and emotional qualities of judgment tend to study cognitive rather than emotional relationships. Psychological research on planning emphasizes the cognitive over the emotional, while social psychological research studies the effects of cognitive emotional interaction on planning judgment. This article argues that planning analysts might combine cognitive and emotional ideas about planning using research insights from the work of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio and the conceptual insights from the work of philosopher Martha Nussbaum. Two brief planning episodes illustrate the relevance of such integration for studying and understanding the kind of planning judgments practitioners make in their everyday practice.
73 citations
TL;DR: The Viewfinder project as discussed by the authors investigated refugees' perceptions and experiences of urban public open space in the UK through a 12-week accredited photography training course and visits to public open spaces, which combined visual, experiential, participatory and longitudinal approaches.
Abstract: This paper discusses methodological dilemmas that were encountered, and strategies used to overcome them, in the Viewfinder project that was undertaken in 2004 in Sheffield, UK. The project investigated refugees’ perceptions and experiences of urban public open space in the UK. Through partnership with a 12-week, accredited photography training course and visits to public open spaces, the research combined visual, experiential, participatory and longitudinal approaches. This paper discusses the success of these in relation to three aims: (1) generating a research situation of open communication; (2) collaborating with non-academic partners; and (3) creating mutual benefit. The research identifies methodological techniques that have potential for engaging marginalised groups in landscape and planning research and in consultation practice.
46 citations
TL;DR: In a city whose people were changing each other's despair into hope, what would it feel like to know your country was changing? You yourself must change it as discussed by the authors. But it is not easy.
Abstract: What would it mean to live in a city whose people were changing each other's despair into hope? You yourself must change it. What would it feel like to know your country was changing? You yourself ...
41 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the cultural and policy shift in planning in the UK toward more integrated and participative practice, and the potential role of visioning in this new climate is examined.
Abstract: Many plans and strategies these days are underpinned by ‘visions’. This article examines the cultural and policy shift in planning in the UK toward more integrated and participative practice, and the potential role of visioning in this new climate. Reviewing examples of vision planning in the US, where the process has a longer lineage, it argues that these interventions suffer from a lack of evaluation of the effects of ‘visioning’. Yet this visioning approach has been adopted in certain cities and towns in Northern Ireland in recent years. This article assesses the impact of this approach in a detailed case study and finds the impact to have been modest.
40 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine ongoing changes in the management of public spaces across England and analyse how local authorities are responding to English government policies and initiatives that explicitly link the quality of public space, especially ordinary streets and squares, to a broader urban policy agenda.
Abstract: Attempts to explain recent changes in the nature and governance of public spaces, however defined, have become prominent in cultural geography, social sciences and urban design. This article aims to contribute to that discussion by examining ongoing changes in the management of public spaces across England and analysing how local authorities are responding to English government policies and initiatives that explicitly link the quality of public spaces, especially ordinary streets and squares, to a broader urban policy agenda. Looking at the way centrally defined policy initiatives are taking root at local level, and on the basis of an extensive survey of current and emerging public space management practices in England, the article makes the case for an understanding of changes in the nature of public space and its governance that is better anchored in the institutional context in which those changes take place. It also suggests that a policy focus on the quality of ordinary public spaces, with its implic...
34 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors define a new concept, "Space of risk", as a lived space that has low levels of trust among different urban groups; where people feel vulnerable and defenseless against terrorizing, urban clashes and riots.
Abstract: This article defines a new concept, ‘Space of risk’, as a lived space that has low levels of trust among different urban groups; where people feel vulnerable and defenseless against terrorizing, urban clashes and riots. Based on a qualitative study, the article examines this concept in the city of Nazareth, which has been in turmoil since the introduction of a plan for a plaza. The article concludes that the reasons that may strongly contribute to the production of spaces of risk are: lack of the right to the city for urban inhabitants; the hegemony of the state over the city through ‘ethnocratic’ urban policies; the hegemony of global forces and neo-liberal agendas over the locale; deficient local politics; absence of communicative planning procedures; and contradictions between planners conception of the place and the way inhabitants conceive and experience it in their daily life practices. As planning has the power of creating and triggering risks in cities, the article suggests some practical ways for...
33 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that environmental and sustainability arguments are ethically superior and more compatible with the American planners' code of ethics than the public health rationale for planning for physically active lifestyles.
Abstract: In recent years, planning and public health have rebuilt interdisciplinary linkages. Programs to promote physical activity and fight obesity by modifying the built environment are now emerging throughout the US and Europe. This article seeks to engage the planning profession in a collective reflection about the ethical meaning and implications of the ‘active living’ agenda. It builds on a historical comparison between the American 19th century sanitation movement and this new agenda. Striking similarities emerge. While they both represent genuine efforts to foster health-supportive environments, they also rely on similar and problematic environmental determinism and positive modernism assumptions, and imply moral and disciplinary control goals. It is argued that environmental and sustainability arguments are ethically superior and more compatible with the American planners' code of ethics than the public health rationale for planning for physically active lifestyles.
26 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess a single regional transport strategy-making effort and argue that the process has achieved some of its aims and is a useful effort at generating awareness of, and interest in, this aspect of strategic policy making.
Abstract: Two trends in contemporary governance practice are mirrored in recent UK efforts in transport policy and practice: first, a concern to develop strategies in more participative and deliberative ways; second, a re-territorialisation of the state with greater attention to regional levels. This article discusses these issues through assessing a single regional transport strategy-making effort. The article argues that the process has achieved some of its aims and is a useful effort at generating awareness of, and interest in, this aspect of strategic policy making. However, the case highlighted shows how important it is to develop an appropriate collaborative process if a policy mechanism is to endure. This requires greater attention to: the purposes of participation in strategy development; the skills, practices and roles needed by the animateurs of such processes; the system of formal decision-making institutions and mechanisms arising from re-territorialisation in the UK case; and reconceptualising particip...
25 citations
TL;DR: The Single European Market could conceivably make a deep impact on established practices of land development as discussed by the authors, and changes to the explicit and implicit rules that have hitherto governed the land market will re-shape the actions of agencies.
Abstract: The Single European Market could conceivably make a deep impact on established practices of land development. Changes to the explicit and implicit rules that have hitherto governed the land market will re-shape the actions of agencies. Rules on state aid and public procurement are particularly pertinent to land development. European regulations on state aid have ended the system of gap funding for the regeneration of brownfields in the United Kingdom and public procurement rules may put an end to land-development contracts in which owners provide the local government with infrastructure in kind.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how planning and liquor licensing controls, the two main sets of contextual controls for the ENTE, provide both the context for more active forms of management and policing and frame an opportunity space for behaviour and conduct.
Abstract: Recent years have seen the emergence of two policy objectives and associated development trends in UK city centres relating to urban vitality and to the urban renaissance policy agenda. These involve a shift towards more city centre residential development and, associated with the 24-Hour City agenda, a shift towards the development of evening/night-time economies (ENTEs). Mixed land uses are seen as an essential component of this vitality. But conflicts often arise from different land uses in close proximity, which, in turn, suggests a need for the sensitive management of urban areas in general and the ENTE in particular. Focusing on the management of activities in space and time in the ENTE of UK cities, this article explores how planning and liquor licensing controls, the two main sets of contextual controls for the ENTE, provide both the context for more active forms of management and policing and frame an opportunity space for behaviour and conduct. The article's overarching argument is that the mana...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the merits of devolution through an analysis of the federal Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) grant program, created as part of the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.
Abstract: For more than a decade US transport policy has shifted or ‘devolved’ responsibility for transportation decision making away from the federal government toward lower jurisdictions. Decentralization is intended to foster social experimentation and, ultimately, improve transit planning and service provision. This study examines the merits of devolution through an analysis of the federal Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) grant program, created as part of the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. The JARC program funds state and regional transportation agencies to provide transit services to low-wage workers. The evidence suggests that the devolution of federal transportation authority has helped to create new and innovative transportation services targeted to low-wage workers. However, the program's weaknesses offer potential strategies for strengthening the benefits of devolution such as ensuring the reliability of federal funds, flexibility in the use of these funds, and greater program a...
TL;DR: In this article, a review of national policy guidance and planning law indicates that central government is taking an equivocal stance towards gender, and it is concluded that before effective gender mainstreaming can take place institutional difficulties and underlying conceptual ambiguities need to be resolved.
Abstract: Local authority planning departments within the United Kingdom are required to undertake gender mainstreaming as a result of European Union and domestic government requirements. However, research undertaken for the Royal Town Planning Institute demonstrates that few local authorities are doing so. A melee of competing equality and diversity considerations at local government level limits the attention given to gender considerations. A review of national policy guidance and planning law indicates that central government is taking an equivocal stance towards gender. It is concluded that before effective gender mainstreaming can take place institutional difficulties and underlying conceptual ambiguities need to be resolved.
TL;DR: A principal objective of planning that is regularly presented is the reconciliation of the individual interest with the common good, albeit that the commongood is difficult to define and measure as discussed by the authors...
Abstract: A principal objective of planning that is regularly presented is the reconciliation of the individual interest with the common good, albeit that the common good is difficult to define and measure. ...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive comparative survey of the townscape quality of most of these areas has been carried out in order to test the hypothesis that too many conservation area designations may "devalue the conservation coinage".
Abstract: The ‘sense of place’ that relates human beings to their environment is under threat from the rising tide of ‘placelessness’ which can result from potentially positive forces such as urban regeneration as well as negative ones such as incremental degradation. The concept of ‘sense of place’, and the need to protect and enhance ‘special places’, has underpinned UK conservation legislation and policy in the post-war era. In Northern Ireland, due to its distinctive settlement tradition, its troubled political circumstances and its centralised administrative system, a unique hierarchy of ‘special places’ has evolved, involving ‘areas of townscape and village character’ as well as conventional ‘conservation areas’. For the first time a comprehensive comparative survey of the townscape quality of most of these areas has been carried out in order to test the hypothesis that too many conservation area designations may ‘devalue the conservation coinage’. It also assesses the contribution that ‘areas of townscape ch...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The last time I wrote an editorial for this journal (6.2, for those interested), I started off by saying “From a British, or at least an English, perspective there is a temptation to be relentlessl...
Abstract: The last time I wrote an editorial for this journal (6.2, for those interested), I started off by saying “From a British, or at least an English, perspective there is a temptation to be relentlessl...
TL;DR: The Planning Inspectorate is a key institution in the English planning system which has a high public profile as discussed by the authors, which is a planning agency of the UK central government which is responsible for determining appeals against the refusal of planning permission and conditions imposed on development by local planning authorities.
Abstract: The Planning Inspectorate is a key institution in the English planning system which has a high public profile. It is a planning agency of the UK central government which is responsible for determining appeals against the refusal of planning permission and conditions imposed on development by local planning authorities. It also determines appeals against enforcement action on unlawful development and holds public local inquiries, where planning inspectors hear objections to policies contained in development plans. The decisions made by the Planning Inspectorate must be seen to be fair, transparent and accountable and, as a consequence, the procedures and conduct of the organisation are increasingly subject to public scrutiny. However the arena in which the Inspectorate now operates has become increasingly more complex. Significant social change has impacted on space, spatial activities and the way people use space. Campaigns around the issues of race, gender, disability, age and sexuality have challenged t...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss four pitfalls that may cause the exchange of planning experience to lead to disappointing or even negative results, and illustrate with examples from Central European rural development the first pitfall is the lack of sufficiently clear terminology that frustrates successful export of knowledge.
Abstract: The enlargement of the European Union has triggered the exchange of spatial planning practices between East and West. Particularly on the level of policy instruments, the intervention side of the planning spectrum, Western European experts on spatial planning have been actively exporting their knowledge to the new and candidate member states. This exchange seems logical in the light of the many similarities between the new and the old member states, such as their common history, similar land tenure concepts, spatial characteristics and challenges, and of course the EU context in which governance is embedded. However, there are several pitfalls that may cause the exchange of planning experience to lead to disappointing or even negative results. Four pitfalls are discussed in this article and illustrated with examples from Central European rural development. The first pitfall is the lack of sufficiently clear terminology that frustrates successful export of knowledge. When terms are ill-defined, people may ...
TL;DR: Hoch et al. as discussed by the authors made the decision to alter the requirements for admission into their Master's degree in regional and urban planning in order to include other relevant subject areas, such as geography, economics and sociology.
Abstract: On my first day as Head of Planning in my university, we made the decision to alter the requirements for entry into our Master’s degree in regional and urban planning. Prior to this decision, the regulations were quite specific about favoured primary degrees for admission to the course. Remarkably, favouritism towards architecture and engineering graduates still remained—an honours degree was not a minimum requirement for entry for these graduates, however, at least a 2(ii) was required for graduates of the social sciences. This was a hangover from 40 years prior to this when a planning diploma was introduced more as an add-on to an architecture undergraduate degree rather than as a separate professional and academic subject. A couple of years later, the architecture department actually opposed the, ultimately successful, attempt to establish a separate department of planning and suggested there was no need for a separate planning profession! In addition to favouring architecture and engineering graduates, the criteria for admission specified other ‘relevant’ subject areas. These were geography, economics and sociology. In altering the criteria for entry into the degree, we expanded the list of subject areas dramatically and included the line “and any other degree relevant to planning”. We considered that there were numerous subjects relevant to planning that can be studied at undergraduate level. However, we, the academics, may not be aware of their relevance and so now we leave it up to the applicant to convince us. The first subject we pulled into the new list was the field of psychology. Given that planning is ultimately about improving people’s lives, and no plan can be successfully implemented without creating the right incentives for people to react in a particular way, it is very clear that an understanding of psychology is a key ingredient into the creation of an effective professional planner. In the past, there has been a tendency for some planners to avoid allowing reality to get in the way of a good plan! Just because a plan has a good ‘planned’ outcome, it will not necessarily happen if people do not behave in a certain way and they will not behave in the way predicted unless the incentives they face are appropriate. There are many glossy plans on shelves that never had any possibility of being successfully implemented because they failed to predict how people would react to certain situations and certain initiatives, that is to say, they reflected a lack of understanding of basic human psychology. In this edition of the journal Charles Hoch’s article on the role of emotions in planning provides an excellent summary and examples of some of the relevant areas of psychological research for planning. Hoch describes how planners like to feel that they take a ‘hard science’ approach to planning, i.e. they demonstrate “indifference to the force of passion”. Despite being emotional beings some think that we can channel our emotions to improve the quality of our cognitive judgements. The conventional wisdom is that, without controlling our emotions appropriately, we cannot plan objectively. There must be Planning Theory & Practice, Vol. 7, No. 4, 361–364, December 2006
TL;DR: Kunzmann et al. as discussed by the authors present reflections on the future of space, Dortmund Articles on Spatial Planning, Blue Collection No.111, Klaus R. Kunzmann, Dortmund, Institute for Spatial planning, University of Dortmund, 2004, 272 pp.
Abstract: Reflections on the Future of Space, Dortmund Articles on Spatial Planning, Blue Collection No.111, Klaus R. Kunzmann, Dortmund, Institute for Spatial Planning, University of Dortmund, 2004, 272 pp ...