Planning Theory & Practice

'Deviants' and Public Housing. Pamela Stephens reviews Akira Drake Rodriguez's 2021 book "Diverging Space for Deviants: The Politics of Atlanta’s Public Housing." Stephens writes "...the book drives home the fact that the designation of deviance [which is marked by a 'refusal to incorporate into mainstream politics'] is never left uncontested as is certainly the case with tenant movements in Los Angeles. As such, the book calls upon planners to understand so-called “deviant” spatial politics not solely as an afront to mainstream politics but as a means to create spaces for political participation. Ultimately, Diverging Space for Deviants is an important addition to the literature on planning history and theory and would be particularly useful for students, scholars, and practitioners who are genuinely interested in thinking about the impacts of planning and public policy interventions on Black and other racialized communities." Check out the whole review, which is available #freeaccess, here: https://lnkd.in/eBjbmX3a

Systems approaches to urban planning. You've probably heard and thought about 'systems' in urban planning, but did you know that the concept of systems has very different connotations in different fields, and has shifted over time? In his new article in Planning Theory & Practice, Nicholas Phelps distinguishes between four approaches to "systems" in urban planning and traces their intellectual histories: ?? Systems (1960s - 1970s; economics and regional science) emphasized the predictability of behaviors in closed systems; Key concept: CONTROL ?? Complex systems (2000 - present; economics, regional science, and complexity theory) emphasizes emergence; Key concept: SELF-ORGANIZATION ?? Societal systems (1980s - present; sociology, urban planning, geography) emphasizes stability of societal relations manifest in systems; Key concept: POWER ?? Organizational systems (1990s - present; org theory, administrative science, management policy studies) emphasizes systemic failures produced by complex systems; Key concept: ACCIDENTS Phelps then focuses specifically on the organizational systems approach saying, "the organizational systems approach is a valuable one to document in future research with a view to addressing normative questions of whether urban planning could or should be reduced to project management." Check out this new article, which is #OpenAccess, here: https://lnkd.in/ezmX9UHq

Spatial planning and housing affordability. In her editorial for the latest issue of PT&P, Mee Kam Ng discusses the causes of housing unaffordability in Hong Kong. According to metrics published by Demographia International Housing Affordability Reports, Hong Kong has topped the unafforadability since 2011. Demographia International has repeatedly argued that restrictive land use planning?is to blame. But is this the case? Mee Kam Ng gives a succinct overview of other factors that have shaped development in Hong Kong, showing that it is actually the lack of spatial planning-- including because of colonial decisions and reactivity to China's use of Hong Kong as a regional port--that has created the artificial shortage of land supply. Editorials are written by members of our editorial team and discuss a timely topic of concern to the planning research/practice community, as well as introduce all the pieces in the issue. Check out the editorial here: https://lnkd.in/e5sKCEBJ

Reparative Urban Science. The rise of new kinds of data - such as those from sensors and social media - and advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence are fueling the rise of "urban science." Urban science is founded on underlying epistemological beliefs that cities can be modeled using a "universal law" and that the outcomes of such models - predictions and automated decisions- are objective and fair. Yet, there is much empirical evidence that this is not the case, and that urban science "can reinforce race-neutral ideology, ultimately sustaining whiteness." In his new article "Reparative Urban Science: Challenging the Myth of Neutrality and Crafting Data-Driven Narratives" Wonyoung So lays out how anti-racist planners and practitioners can understand urban science. #UrbanScience #CriticalDataStudies #Planning #AntiRacist Check out this new #OpenAccess article here: https://lnkd.in/e2Jaysze

Collective action and sustained cooperation. In our newest Interface collection, editors Atul Pokharel and John Forester assemble six pieces that explore the theory and practice of cooperation. They write, "how might our prevailing theories support or undermine planning practices, public policies, or even social action? Can theories of justice or injustice ever inspire or inform social action? When it comes to considerations of collective action, we suspect that if our prevailing theories of rationality imply that real cooperation is difficult or unlikely, the problem is more likely to be in our theories than in our everyday lives." This Interface includes the following pieces: "Viewpoints from Law, Economics, Religious Studies, Public Administration, and Everyday Practices of Care" by Atul Pokharel and John Forester "The Relational Dimensions of Collective Action" by Raul Lejano and Wing Shan Kan "Statutory Planning as the “Rules of the Game” for Sustained Cooperation: the Case of Master Planning in Lahti, Finland" by Aleksi Heinila and Hanna Mattila "Is 'Religion' Sufficient to Sustain Long-Term Cooperation?" by Babak Manouchehrifar "Behind the Frontline: Bureaucrats and Sustained Cooperation" by Bernadette Baird-Zars "From Cooperation to Collective Action and Collective Decision Making in Planning" by Kieran Donaghy Interface collections are meant to explore the connections between theory and practice in planning, and are always #OpenAccess. Check out this collection here: https://lnkd.in/ewn_w2uQ

"[H]ow can you have a profession (whose?raison d’être?is the application of expert knowledge) if you argue that there is no such thing as expert knowledge, only different opinions to be brought together?" -- so begins an article (quotation from Phil Allmendinger) by Raine Mantysalo, Martin Westin, and Hanna Mattila in their 2023 article "Public Planner – A Deliberative Authority." "[Planners] often feel unsure about their agency when there is disagreement. Merely mediating between the parties in controversies may seem unsatisfactory for the planner’s role... [and] planners need firmer agency in shaping attention to various kinds of common good concerns. However, locating such agency legitimately in the context of deliberative ideals is difficult, and, as we aim to argue, not well supported by planning theory." This #OpenAccess article helps develop the theory by exploring legitimate uses of "power over" and through a revisitation of deliberative democracy theory. #DeliberativeDemocracy #Planning https://lnkd.in/ejqDwRgc

Children and participatory planning. In their article "Children as Key Actors in Participatory Planning: Co-Working Experience of Community Planning for Walking Safety Around Bongrae Elementary School in South Korea" authors Bo-Kyung Jung and Donghyun Kim describe how they designed a planning process specifically for children. This article has been covered by twelve news outlets, so the editorial team has made it Open Access for all those interested. The importance of involving children in planning in their own communities fits normative goals that participation should be rich, diverse, and inclusionary, and that child-friendly cities, should fulfill the rights of all children to access safe environments, healthcare and education, green spaces, and opportunities to meet and play with friends. Check it out the article here: https://lnkd.in/etpa6twp

Congratulations to Pia Backlund, Vesa Kanninen, and Tomas Hanell, whose Planning Theory and Practice article "Accepting Depoliticisation? Council Members’ Attitudes Towards Public-Public Contracts in Spatial Planning" was shortlisted for the AESOP - Association of European Schools of Planning's Best Published Paper Award. In their 2023 paper, the authors describe the rise of "contractual planning," which is the use of public-private and public-public collaborative agreements for planning services. Contractual planning fits within the trends of neoliberalization of government action, and often undermines democratic control by favoring institutional conditions that work towards market-friendly solutions. How aware are local council members of these dynamics? The authors analyze written comments by council members in three different countries -- Finland, Norway, and Sweden -- to answer this question. The authors write, "Our findings show that contractual planning is partially sidestepping both democratic principles and local self-governance. While the formal local decision-making power in contractual planning resides in the local councils, the role of politicians as the watchdogs of democratic ideals is diminished, while their role as managers of economic growth is heightened." Check out this #OpenAccess article to read more! https://lnkd.in/eT7EsXt6

Women and Planning. Last week, the Women and Planning: From Theory to Practice conference was convened by Leeds Beckett University. To coincide with this event, Planning Theory & Practice has compiled a virtual special issue of twelve articles that address how we can better consider the needs of women and girls when planning our towns and cities. The following are now available as free access articles, here: https://lnkd.in/gEwHs-Dh 1. Half-Full or Half-Empty? Planning for Women's Safety in Victoria, Australia - Carolyn Whitzman, 2011 2. Lifeworld strategies of women who find themselves homeless in South Africa - Olusola Olufemi and Dory Reeves PhD FRTPI (Reeves and Associates), 2004 3. Women's struggle for urban safety. the Canadian experience and its applicability to the Israeli context - Rachel Kallus and Azra Churchman, 2007 4. ‘Unintended Cities’ and Inoperative Violence. Housing Resistance in Yangon - Giovanna Astolfo and Camillo Boano, 2020 5. Towards a Feminist Code of Planning Ethics - Sue Hendler, 2005 6. Property titles and the urban poor: from informality to displacement? - Ann Varley, 2016 7. The Places We Live, June 2020 - Libby Porter, 2020 8. The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner: Long-term Feminist Planning Initiatives in London, Melbourne, Montréal and Toronto - Carolyn Whitzman, 2007 9. Institutional and Conceptual Barriers to the Adoption of Gender Mainstreaming Within Spatial Planning Departments in England - clara greed, 2006 10. Gender Mainstreaming in Urban Planning: The Potential of Geographic Information Systems and Open Data Sources - Jose Carpio-Pinedo, Sonia De Gregorio. PhD, Ines Sanchez de Madariaga, 2019 11. When Strangers Become Neighbours: Managing Cities of Difference - Leonie Sandercock, 2010 12. Managing Diversity and Mainstreaming Equality: Reflections on Initiatives in the Planning Inspectorate - Chris Booth, 2007

The 15-minute city. In their article "Unravelling the Spatial Arrangement of the 15-Minute City: A Comparative Study of Shanghai, Melbourne, and Portland" authors Fujie Rao, Yijun Kong, Ka Heng Ng, Qiyang Xie, and Youyu Zhu use comparative urbanism to extend precision of the concept of "the 15-minute city." Enhanced definitional clarity in what exactly a 15-minute city is will help stave off the conspiracy theories and misinformation that have arisen around the concept. The article includes fascinating empirical analyses that feature morphological analysis and streetview imagery, as well as interpretive analysis of policies in Shanghai (China), Melbourne (Australia), and Portland (USA). Check out the article on this important concept here: https://lnkd.in/eSHPzmQM #15minuteCity *Note: unfortunately this article is not Open Access. If you need access to the article, authors often are very happy to distribute their research personally if contacted!