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Essex school of discourse analysis: A logic-based approach to ontological investigation of planning
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Planning discipline historically emerged to modify the side effects of capitalism. Consequently, the discipline has undertaken a paradoxical role: while planning provides facilities for a better condition of life through provision and distribution of public goods and services, it also facilitates accumulation of capital and market operation (Harvey, 1985). Friedmann (1987) discussed the difficulties that we as planners face to present a definition of the essence of planning discipline. Furthermore, Gunder (2005) through a Lacanian approach illuminated the linguistics reasons for difficulties in presenting a concise definition of planning, specifically where we present contradictory significations for the dominant concepts of planning such as smart growth, sustainability, and public interest. As Gunder and Hillier (2009) argued, it seems planning is signified with a series of terms and phrases which inherently have different and sometimes contradictory significations. This paper suggests that planners require an ontological investigation of planning to respond to a question of the planning functions. An ontological analysis is merely possible on the light of logic. Namely, a logic approach is able to provide a window on ontological studies of the essence of phenomena including planning.Published versio
Challenges and tricky words. a stronger role for planners
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017In the last 20 years, a deliberate strategy of impoverishment of local governments argued the imperative need of: a) involving at all (public) costs, the private sector through the “trojan horse” of governance (Miraftab 2004); b) designing big and shortsighted urban projects (frequently destroying public resources and ignoring public needs) through the mantra of the urban and territorial competition. As it has been already noted, “by elevating Governance above Government, and Economics above Politics, the global policy undermined nation- and state-building capacities in many Countries” (Demmers, Jilberto, Hogenboom, 2004). Moreover, through the rhetoric on pluralism, the neo-liberal governance has contributed to shrink and destroy the relevance of public interest. In fact, behind the 'screen' of governance and the representation of an amorphous citizenship and a not qualified of diffuse interests, the deployment of capitalism has prevailed. This legitimized the partial and strongest interests into shaping the public agenda within the polarized inequalities. In this framework, the paper will give some suggestions and advices for rethinking current problems, and trying to deal with them, by starting by the critical evaluation of some words we use. Moreover, by focusing on the ethic of responsibility and accountability of planners (and for most of us as planning scholars), the paper argues that a stronger role for planners and planning scholars has to do with our own field of responsibility (such as professionals/practitioners/scholars), and moreover with our commitment in building and using new theories and research approaches at least to: a) incorporate the ‘others’/minorities by considering furthermore the interaction between capitalism accumulation in space and the minorities (Yiftachel 2013); b) improve critical urban theories mixing with place-based planning and research practices (Campbell 2012; 2014), by applying different approaches; c) co-produce (Watson 2014) a public model of development, being aware of the oligopolistic elites and extractive institutions (Acemouglou, Robinson, 2012).Published versio
Achieving spatial quality in integrated planning: an evaluation of the Dutch ‘room for the river’ program using qualitative comparative analysis
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017In line with recent trends towards area-oriented planning, flood risk management has seen a shift from a water control strategy towards a water accommodation strategy. In the Netherlands, this resulted in the policy program Room for the River. The projects in this policy program are expected to achieve two key objectives: first, the accommodation of higher flood levels, i.e., water safety, and second, improving the spatial quality of the riverine areas. Whilst research has shown that the program is successful with respect to increasing water safety, less is known about its second objective. This paper thus has two aims: (1) assessing the extent to which the program has been able to achieve spatial quality and (2) identifying the conditions that explain this. To these aims, archival and survey data were collected, and analyzed using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). The analysis shows that there are various combinations of conditions for achieving spatial quality. We conclude that these different combinations entail different strategies, and that by means of those, the program management has been successful in achieving spatial quality in the Room for the River program.Published versio
Knowledge and visibility of cohousing. Acceptance of cohousing in Madrid society
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The issue of housing and urban regeneration is not left out of the social context of globalization in which the society is immersed. It produces an alienation of the individual who is forced to live in spaces that do not always respond to the needs that his/her lifestyle demands. This paper presents cohousing as a more social and egalitarian habitat movement in the urban context. It is a type of collective housing that mixes numerous common spaces with private spaces that guarantee the privacy of the individual. One of the fundamental features of this type of collectivity is the management of all common spaces by its residents, generating an integrated social coexistence of all the inhabitants. The concept of cohousing generates different images in people, from ideological approaches to points of view related to sustainability or associations with the concept of commune. Other people see it as a different way of organizing their daily tasks in community, or as a cooperative. There is also the vision of cohousing as a more economical way of life. The different interpretations that it causes can be a sign of the increasing interest in this lifestyle. This article is structured as follows. First, it tells what cohousing is and where it's come from. Second, it analyzes the knowledge of cohousing in Madrid society. Finally it gives some concrete examples of cases of cohousing in Madrid.Published versio
Territorial opportunities for urban requalification practices
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The urbanization processes of the last thirty years show a profoundly changed urban framework related to the functional and formal orders of the previous periods. The territorial organization of social and economic activities, in Italy, is affected by the contextual phenomenon of urban sprawling and “territorial coalescence” (Calafati, 2009). As consolidated as stable forms of urban growth over the last two decades, these phenomena have occurred in path-dependent processes, starting from specific conditions and actions that are «unintended and deliberated, but that are tolerated as minor evils, in the absence of alternatives, or as a result of force relations that have prevailed over every deliberate and programmed regulatory instance» (Donolo, 2011:189, translated by the author). These urban changes are generically referable to a contest of “urban regionalization”, and show some relevant instances of “re-shaping” and “re-qualification”. In facing the territorial dimension reached by the urban condition, some traditional criteria of analysis and interpretation – strictly focused on a basic and dichotomic “lecture” of urban “facts” – must be overcome.Published versio
Spatial transformations through migrant crisis in Greece
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Although migration is not new, in recent years Europe has to deal with an entirely unanticipated reality. Since European migration crisis began in 2015, the number of people that have arrived at European Union borders through regular or irregular channels has continually increased. This migration surge rapidly became the largest and most challenging that Europe has faced since the World War II (European Union, 2016a). The term “migrant crisis” is preferred instead of “refugee crisis” explained by analyzing the desegregation of migrants and refugees arrived in Europe by nationality. According to UNHCR (2017a), Syrians constitute the 6.4% of total arrivals in the Mediterranean and 38.5% in Greece. This statistics constitutes an indisputable proof that Europe and Greece, in particular, faces a migration crisis with intense refugee waves. Since 2015, a large proportion of migration flows has directed to Europe through the countries of the Mediterranean – South (Metcalfe-Hough, 2015). Greece is the country of first entry for the vast majority of migrants and refugees arrived in Europe by sea or land because of its geographical location. Greek Islands of the Aegean Sea have greeted more than 70% of arrivals between 2015 and 2016 (UNHCR, 2017a). Thus, throughout this period, the country has been converted into a transit zone for migrants to Central and Northern Europe. Migration/refugee movements formed “corridors” from East to Western Europe; through Turkey and Greece to the mainland EU, which is their final destinations (Frontex, 2016).Published versio
The mental health atlas as tools for an comprehensive spatial based management of mental health care
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Different funding schemes of mental health care coexist in Spain due to the transfer of power made to regional governments. Comparing the efficiency of those regional systems implies assessing several aspects. Among them, one of the most important is the structure and composition of the mental health network across the each region. This work attempt to present the mental health atlases (MHA) as a tool developed to describe the current state of the regional mental health network but also to support the planning of health policies. MHA offer a comprehensive approach to the mental health care since itencompasses services provided by the health care system but also services provided by other agents of the regional government. To do this, the DESDE-LTC classification as well as a geographical information system are employed. The DESDE-LTC classification allows making an inventory of the different service unit embodied within the mental health network, describing the function of each unit in a standardized way, regardless the denomination of the unit or its affiliation to a body of the regional government. To illustrate the MHA, this work present the MHA of Bizkaia and Guipuzkoa, whose mental health networks are composed by more than 150 and 130 standardized services, respectively. The MHA of Bizkaia shows that there is a high concentration of services in an area called “Ría de Bilbao”. Meanwhile the MHA of Guipuzkoa exhibits a mental health network more geographically dispersed. Despite these differences, both examples yield a good performance in terms of quality of care, except in the case of long-term stay in hospitals. This work contributes to the planning of public services by delivering a tool, which can be applied to other countries or adapted to be used to analyze the current state of public services networks across the space.Published versio
The change of urban spatial forms and its influencing factors from town planning to community evolution
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Since the 1980s, the Urban Regime Theory, which interprets the influencing factors affecting urban spatial forms was initially proposed in the U.S. Because of this theory developing a new way to interpret urban forms from the perspective of social science, it occupies the dominating position in the system of urban study theory. The founders of this theory, Logan and Molotch (1987) maintained that these factors could be concluded as three types of forces, which represented the interest of governing party, financial group and community organisation. Meanwhile Stone (1989) pointed out that the coaction of these forces decides most urban spatial forms at the material level. Based on their views, the aim of this essay is to interpret how the change of spatial forms is affected by each force and how these forces interact in deciding spatial form evolution. To start with, the theoretical model of urban regime theory will be introduced. Then, two cases about new town planning in UK will be discussed to evaluate the change of spatial forms and the different spatial characteristics caused by each force. Furthermore, the interaction of three forces in spatial evolution will be interpreted through the studying case in China. Finally, new conceptual model will be proposed, which could explain the relationship among three forces in influencing urban spatial forms. The conclusion indicates that the urban spatial forms are affected by three types of forces reflected in different aspects mainly including spatial structure, transportation system, land shape, land-use, density and accessibility of infrastructure etc. Depend on it, the cause of different spatial forms could be explained much clearly.Published versio
Exploring the zoning and land use mismatch – an ex-post evaluation of a detailed plan in a land readjustment area in Tainan
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Over the past twenty years, planning scholars have paid more attention to evaluation research as local governments request performance measurements for future decision making, and as citizens and stakeholders request higher accountability and transparency on policy interventions. Planning evaluation can take place at three different times: ex-ante, on-going, and ex-post evaluation. The latter two receive relatively little attention in the literature due to the lack of resources, the norms of organization culture, and the limited availability of data and analytical methods. As the legitimacy of planning and its effects has been increasingly questioned in Taiwan, this study takes on the challenge of the ex-post evaluation, to evaluate the effect on plan implementation on the ground in Taiwan, using a case study of a detailed plan of a land readjustment neighborhood in Tainan City to empirically demonstrate the quantitative evidence for planning implementation. Due to the regulatory planning system in Taiwanese city areas, this research takes a conformance-based approach on planning implementation evaluation. The mismatch of land use, built area ratio, and floor area ratio will be analyzed quantitatively for its spatial distribution, patterns of concentration, and potential social-economic factors that may be associated with the implementation. An empirical assessment of the gap between plan and outcome is the foundation to define the success or failure of the plan in its relationship to the urban development process. This study is a significant attempt to provide empirical evidence on the effect of zoning and the ability of a plan to create change in Taiwan. As New York City’s Zoning Resolution reaches its first centennial, this study attempts to join the international dialogue on connecting planning theory, planning practice, and education.
Keywords: zoning, land use, plan implementation, ex-post evaluation, conformance-based, TainanPublished versio
An infrastructure-based planning as a model for addressing complexity and uncertainty
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The conception of the Territory, or in other case of the city or the urban as a part of the previous one, as a Complex Evolutionary System, full of diversity and uncertainty due to its continuous transformation, it is clear that it has important implications for Planning. So, if Planning is considered as a way of thinking and future-oriented action based on decisions of a spatial nature taken in the present on a complex and constantly changing system. The main consequence is the impossibility of formulating an allencompassing and finalist Planning, since it is not possible to intervene on all the elements of the system, which are also in continuous evolution and transformation. Then, in a spatial context of strong uncertainty, due to the non-linear combination of different coevolutionary changes, it is not feasible to formulate a finalist image of the territory, or city, for a future time horizon. Therefore, Planning has to change its traditional budgets and accept that in a complex, diverse, evolutionary and uncertain environment its role will be very different. For that reason, Planning must accept that its fundamental objective will be the formulation of alternative solutions for each spatial problem posed, evaluating different evolutionary trajectories of the territory, in order to facilitate and improve collective decision making.Published versio