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Participation between consensus and contestation governmentalized practices of planning in Global South and Global North
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThis paper argues that planning is a technology of power aimed at 'governing' urban populations. To discuss this statement the study takes as a reference point the post-structuralist discussion on power, the state and government in contemporary societies. According to Post-structuralists, power is not something concrete or objectified from which one can take possession or keep ownership. Instead, it is a social relation between individuals that spreads over the social environment in the form of webs or networks (Foucault, 2008, Laclau and Mouffe 1985, Lemke 2007, Veiga-Neto 2005, Rose 1992).
These networks of relationships involve multiple connections between the agents targeting the governance of people’s consciousness and conduct. Within the network, the individual is both the target and the source of power relations. In democratic settings, individual autonomy is not opposed to political power, but rather, the foundation for its exercise, to the extent that individuals are not only objects of power, but they also constitute themselves as subjects of power relations.
This paper directs attention to political power, that kind of power that Foucault defines as a system of forces which is concentrated and monopolized by the state and whose function is to exercise power and influence on other spheres of society. The paper explores the concept of power by focusing on both, the micro and macro relations of power in society, and seeks to explain how they are condensed on the State in the form of government.publishedVersio
Networks of solidarity within the community based organizations struggling for Beyoğlu - Istanbul
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southDepending on David Harvey’s work; built environment is produced by the accumulation and organization of capital and urban environment was also built, and is continuously destroyed and rebuilt, for the sake of creating a more efficient arena for circulation. This process of “creative destruction” is accelerating and is clearly visible in many cities around the globe (Harvey, 2008, 2013). Accordingly; urban space became both a commodity to reproduce capital and a subject of collective struggle in many countries like Turkey. On the other hand; research on urban movements commonly presents that; governing cities and particularly urban public land will gain importance since movements to protect the existing environment against rampant construction frequently succeeded (Mayer, 2012). Furthermore they have the potential to congregate local groups together in global coalitions in which people gather on a common ground for a better life claiming for their right to the city.
The metropolis of Istanbul where the research carried out, is one of the most dynamic cities of Turkey and also a city that these urban re-development politics and struggles revealed itself the most. Considering Istanbul, the practices of urban transformation and privatization of public urban land have led to criticism about the role of central government in urban development. Also the lack of citizen involvement in decision-making has led to the formation of a number of community-based organizations (grassroots). “Neighborhood organizations” and “solidarity groups” (initiatives) have become an increasingly important part of politics and civil society.publishedVersio
Planning with capital markets: financial intermediaries’ investment standards and the political economy of urban production in the French commercial real estate sector
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThe financial infrastructure underpinning the production of contemporary city-regions is transformed as financial intermediaries that pool economic agents’ savings and allocate them between various types of assets are gaining importance (Froud, Johal, & Williams, 2002 on coupon pool capitalism). Traditional savings-to-loans banking intermediation is thus partly giving way to the financial re-intermediation realized by the financial intermediaries active on capital markets. As other economic activities, the urban built environment is affected by this evolution: financial intermediaries find in a growing number of urban actors (households, municipalities, development companies…) and urban objects (land, buildings, highways, bridges, airports, sewers, photovoltaic panels…) investment opportunities that offer promises of future income streams (Leyshon & Thrift, 2007). By bundling them in ‘alternative investments portfolios’ (Torrance, 2008), and trading them publicly or over-the-counter, these financial intermediaries contribute to transform urban assets into financial commodities and financial subjects (Martin, 2002).
This evolution in the financial infrastructure has sparkled several researches that look at how financial re-intermediation affects the production of the urban built environment (see Attuyer and Halbert, forthcoming). A key result is that, whether the local planning authorities welcome such financial intermediaries, negotiate the conditions of their investments, or even attempt to resist to them, they are always confronted to what appear to be financial intermediaries’ investments standards (David & Halbert, 2014; Guironnet, Attuyer, & Halbert, 2015; Theurillat & Crevoisier, 2014)(Theurillat et al., 2013; David and Louise, 2014; Guironnet et al., 2015).publishedVersio
Port logistics and territorial dynamics in the south of Espírito Santo and north of Rio de Janeiro: the port as a development vector?
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southBrazil faces serious problems of transport infrastructure which have resulted in a loss of their products competitiveness in the international arena. The modernization efforts, from the 1990s, have been directed to produce changes in the regulatory frameworks with the intention of attracting private investment for large port projects in various parts of Brazil. Our research funded by CNPQ, National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development, is dedicated to analyze the conditions of installation and for operation of some enterprises in the region between the southern of Espírito Santo and the northern of Rio de Janeiro, an area currently affected by four projects, some in operation and others under construction. Specifically, we intend to investigate the facilities’ impacts that those private terminals could produce in the cities of President Kennedy and Anchieta, in Espírito Santo state, and São Francisco do Itabapoana and São João da Barra, in Rio de Janeiro state. This is an interstate area endowed with comparative advantages which makes it attractive for big business: settled as a node of an international transport network – specialized in primary products - this portion of the country has been managed in order to connect Brazil into international trade. In this sense, the port terminals installed in this region, work as nodes of a transnational network that attract the interest of big business. In particular, these municipalities have extensive sparsely populated areas and low cost lands where economic activities with low dynamic, especially cash crops of low profitability, are developed. Moreover, these municipalities lie in a territorial context influenced, directly or indirectly, by oil economy.publishedVersio
A spatial and longitudinal analysis of unmet transportation needs during hurricanes Katrina and Rita
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southHurricanes Katrina and Rita had a tremendous impact on transportation infrastructure and services in the United States. While other parts of the world have suffered greater losses from natural disasters, Katrina and Rita rank among the deadliest and costliest natural disasters in U.S. history (NOAA, 2014). They ravaged the Gulf Coast of the United States within a three-week period, with landfall first on August 29 then September 24, 2005. These disasters led to the largest mass evacuation in U.S. history, strained the region’s transportation infrastructure and services, and tested the effectiveness of state emergency management offices to respond to calls for transportation needs. Although there is a growing literature on the impacts of natural disasters on transportation infrastructure (Freckleton et al., 2012; Szyliowicz, 2013; TRB, 2008; Wolshon et al., 2005), there is scant research on emergency response to transportation needs, particularly unmet needs of disaster victims who face barriers to affordable transportation and services.
Objectives
This study fills this important gap through an unprecedented analysis of transportation-related 2-1-1 (non-emergency) disaster call data collected in real-time during the period of the hurricanes, allowing for the investigation of unmet transportation needs by location and disaster phases. We conducted a spatial and longitudinal analysis of 2-1-1 transportation-related calls in the US state of Texas to identify “hot spots” of unmet transportation needs.publishedVersio
Collaboration between scientist citizens and citizen scientist - bridging the gap
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southComplex contexts of great uncertainity, as it is common in environmental management and species conservation, require more and more a effective dialogue among the different expertises and among these and the citizen, in the construction of collaborative joint solutions. A diversity of formats shaping these processes have been experiment more recently, however a lot is still to explore. In Portugal what is called passive participation, with a more informative or consulting features (e.g., consultation or public auditions) is considerably consolidate. The same cannot be stated for what is called active participation with the effective involvement of the parts contributing and intervening directly in the decision making process.
The effective involvement and the active public participation of the citizens has become a growing requirement, namely in environmental management, having already conquered a substantial number of experts. Simultaneously, the literature shows that the value of the social relations brings to the environmental management, growing and interesting contributions, suggesting the need to articulate these elements with the biological and social elements of conservation (Pretty et al., 2004). The more traditional participatory formats supported in the “one way” communication has been giving place to “a methodological as well as a conceptual shift, with more traditional forms of one-way communication making way for dialogic or discursive fora that aim to empower people regarding the issues which might affect them or their communities” (Pidgeon et al., 2014).publishedVersio
“Phantom” infrastructures and metropolitan development: a reflexion from Lisbon Metropolitan Area
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southSome infrastructures, such as seaports, airports or high-speed railway, among others, for its relevance, can generate significant, territorial and others, effects at differentiated scales. These effects begin to be felt even much before their physical implementation. Its simple announcement is enough to shake sectors such as real estate, specialized consulting or the municipal and/or regional policies.
These investments, which structure the territory and even some specific sectors, are in large examples proposed in absentia of existing planning instruments or in preparation. Its public presentation represents something new, activating a set of dynamics in the private and public domains, which ultimately carry the simple announcement of a decision to the plan of concrete reality.
Beyond this automatic effects, is also important to consider the difficulty to politically decide their effective implementation by either the complexity or uncertainty but also for the associated costs. The indecision, delay and, often, the retreat in the decision carries heavy costs, sometimes unrecoverable to people, activities and territories, even if dealing with an infrastructure that never had a real existence.publishedVersio
The planner’s role in a planning process for a cautious adaptation of housing in developing countries – examined through reconstruction projects in Indonesia after 2004
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southFrom all that the scientific community knows today, one important subject in transformative planning is the adaptation of housing to natural hazards and the expected consequences triggered by climate change. These planning practices regard complex issues of climate change, natural resource management, sustainability and environmental justice. Natural hazards, including climatological, meteorological, hydrological and geophysical hazards can have a devastating impact on human life and the built environment. Whether loss or damage arises and a natural hazard turns into a disaster is determined by the vulnerability of a region depending on the socio-economic framework conditions as well as the coping and adaptive capacity of an affected society. People in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of natural hazards for multiple reasons, such as a shortage of money & other resources, a lack of planning rules & regulations and not accounting for natural & climate change impacts in the design or planning process. Additionally, developing countries often lack information and knowledge on what can be done to adapt housing. This situation is likely to become more acute since some of these hazards are expected to be amplified due to the anticipated effects of climate change. According to Jha et al., housing is defined as the immediate physical environment, both within and outside of buildings, in which families and households live, and which serve as shelter. This built environment is the setting for the most fundamental of human relationships. It presents a social and cultural space in opposition to the natural environment and poses a fundamental element in global poverty reduction.publishedVersio
Urban and environmental potential in the Amazon frontier: proposal of urban requalification of the Canaã dos Carajás municipality
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThe Major Projects created by the federal government in the second half of the twentieth century significantly affected the structuring of numerous Amazonian cities. In declaring the occupation and the integration of the Amazon with the rest of the country, it was led to the creation of new urban centers and the transformation of the existing ones. The great demand of required workforce has generated various population bumps, because the urban area grew at a much faster pace than the supply infrastructure in these cities. The implementation of new mining projects and power supply still provoke high rates of growth in the municipalities of Pará’s southeastern.
From 2000 to 2010, the region had municipalities with population growth higher than 100%. Among them, we highlight here the city of Cannã dos Carajás, which grew almost 150% (with its urban population increased 1065.57% between 2000 and 2014) and is expected to continue growing over the next decade. However, the population grew, but the income remains concentrated: in urban areas, only 6.4% of the population receives more than three minimum wages. This is worse when verified in the rural population of the municipality where only 1.7% of the population are in this three minimum wages income range (IBGE, 2010; URBISAMAZONIA, 2014). Faced with this expectation, new housing developments have been deployed in the city indiscriminately, without the evaluation of planners and environmental technicians, these factors generate a context that gives rise to structural damage in terms of deployment, security, displacement and accessibility and whose consequences are already notable demographically and environmentally.publishedVersio
The Culture of the Port City
No full textCity on water : 6th AESOP European Urban Summer School 2015, BremenWhen talking or thinking about culture, and especially local culture, it is often about those obvious symbols, artefacts and behaviours we can perceive directly on the surface: Specialised architecture, regional dishes, traditional festivities, typical dialects etc. But, all this is nothing more than an expression of collectively shared meanings, expectations, norms and values characterising a certain locality or community. In this sense urban culture is much more than just the ensemble of symbols around us; it is an extremely important determinant of our thinking, understanding and decision making. In twofold respect this fact is of high relevance for urban planning: (1) Planning and a certain planning culture are without any doubt operating in the framework of a wider local culture and therefore they can transcend the cultural peculiarity of a given place only in a limited way; (2) planners as well as most of the other actors in urban development and local policy are not only specialised professionals but also residents of a certain place and as such they are affected by that framework and contribute to produce and reproduce local culture. Meaning and relevance of the local culture in this sense will be analysed in the case of European port cities in the following