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How policy documents (re)produce the cycling citizen
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 southCycling is often promoted as a low cost, accessible and virtuous solution to many urban transport problems, including air pollution and congestion. It is also pedalled as a strategy for solving public health issues created by modern urban living, such as the constructed crisis of the ‘obesity epidemic’, and a way to address the looming threat of climate change. Thus cycling is heralded as a sustainable mobility capable of addressing a range of social, environmental, economic and personal issues. Yet the status of cycling as a quick and easy transport solution to these ills has rarely been problematised. Much of the academic and policy literature exploring the adoption or rejection of cycling as a personal mode of transport has focussed on the role of the quality and availability of physical infrastructure, perceptions of traffic and hazards, and local urban form and streetscape. This emphasis has also dominated transport planning and policy efforts to increase cycling mode share. While these factors are undeniably important influences in individual travel behaviour and decisions, the social, psychological, cultural and contextual factors that influence cycling behaviour and modal choice have been less well explored.
In countries like Australia where cycling remains a very low proportion of total trips by mode, the ‘cyclist’ has become an identity in and of itself; an identity that sits more comfortably and consistently with some than others, in turn shaping travel practices and choices. This research explores the limited and limiting ways in which the cycling citizen is reflected in, and indeed constructed by, transport policy and planning documents, and how this may shape decisions to (or not to) cycle.publishedVersio
Security walls in Belfast, towards removal?
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 southIn Belfast, local communities had been and still are affected by the civil conflict, especially in the inner city working class neighbourhoods divided along religious and political lines (Catholic nationalist republican community and Protestants unionists loyalists). Since the end of the sixties, security walls (called peacelines) have been built by the police and have not yet been removed, despite the official peace process and the reestablishment of local assembly and government agreed in 1998. Nevertheless, tensions remain high, violence has not disappeared; and if bombs and murders are less frequent, it has been substituted by low level violence and protracted protests on marches and symbols.
The peacelines themselves have undergone a great deal of transformation through urban renewal projects for long ago. Separation devices and walls, originally built by the military or the police have been integrated to the urban landscape and ordinary planning processes. The corrugated iron and barbed wire had been “soften”, replaced by new walls, and the new structures include strips of grass, trees, bricks and fences. Vacant and derelict land is now being used for industrial and business units or private residential developments. A new wave of transformation is beginning, as the executive stated in 2013 that walls should be removed by 2023. All agencies dealing with the peacelines (especially the department of Justice, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, social housing national agency, the international Fund for Ireland) have begin consultations with local communities to create conditions where walls could be removed. As the remaining violence and intimidation are still high, local communities living near the security walls don’t want to see them to be removed completely for safety reasons.publishedVersio
Virtues and ills of private funding urban development: impasses in the actually existing joint urban operations
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 purpose of this paper is to discuss and critically approach a planning instrument that has become increasingly popular among Brazilian city governments since the Cities Charter (Estatuto da Cidade) was approved in 2001, the Joint Urban Operation. An Urban Operation, as any public-private partnership, is a legal framework that allows the participation of private actors in the funding – and in the share of benefits – in actions of public interest. The specifics of urban operations are that they concern urban transformations in a pre-defined territory, delimited by a perimeter, and that they are funded through the selling of financial titles called CEPAC. Issued by the city and tradable as means of payment in exchange of building rights, each CEPAC is equivalent to an amount of square meters for use in additional construction area above the normal local parameters, and at the same time is a financial title whose value can increase or decrease according to the market. Urban Operations figure among those planning instruments conceived to allow the public power to capture part of the land plus-value in areas under valuation, that otherwise would be pocketed by land owners and developers alone. They have been inspired and compared in the literature to the French ZAC – Zone d’Amangement Concerté, as well as to similar Colombian experiences. Urban Operations create “strategic exceptions” to zoning law in the perimeter in which they are planned, easing limitations so that developers can build above the normal parameters for the city by acquiring CEPACs. The city monetizes the sold building rights, and by doing so, collects funds that must be reinvested in urban transformations in the same area.publishedVersio
The “false bottom” of EU regional policy? The potential detachment of regional policy funding and regional planning strategies
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 southLooking at the sectoral policies the European Union has a mandate for, regional policy (recently mainly addressed as cohesion policy) can be regarded the most relevant for spatial planning. Though regional policy was never seen as part of what is commonly understood as European spatial planning, its explicit spatial dimension and territorial organization suggest a connection with spatial planning, first and foremost with planning at the urban and regional level. The character of this connection, however, differs between member states and changes with every cohesion policy reform. The 2006 reform seemingly diluted the spatial dimension of regional policy in favor of the objectives of growth, jobs and competitiveness (Dühr, Colomb, & Nadin, 2010). At the same time, however, the reform established sustainable urban development as eligible element in the course of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This was emphasized even more in the subsequent reform in 2013, which stipulated that at least 5% of each country’s ERDF resources shall be allocated to integrated actions for sustainable urban development (European Union, 2013). Although the impact of this regulation will only be visible in a few years’ time, evaluations and academic research from previous programming periods have confirmed that the effects of regional policy go beyond socio-economic impacts, triggered by the sheer redistribution of money within the EU. Instead, regional policy is also affecting spatial planning and planning actors through the ideas on strategic planning, integrated development, partnership, evaluation and the exchange of know-how and best practice that it promotes.publishedVersio
Separation and rising conservatism: an assessment of Istanbul at the city center and periphery
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 southCity centers constitute the beginning of the urbanization adventure for migrants. The centers of the large cities of developing countries in particular are areas where all sorts of urban facilities are found in the greatest density. The use of the dilapidated and derelict housing stocks by migrants has always created an affordable environment for their process of urbanization. The diversity, quantity, and relatively high quality of the facilities located in the city center also supports the urbanization efforts of these groups.
However the development, transformation, and renewal processes of these areas that have emerged as a result of the pressure of globalization that has begun to be experienced particularly in developing large cities weakens the relatively advantageous position of migrants in the city center. The rise in a short period of time of purchase prices in the city’s land market has brought about a change of hand of the building stock in the center, and the center has begun to change its function through renovation projects in cases where conditions were amenable. Some residential areas however have not been included in this transformation due to the resistance of inhabitants to this pressure to renovate, and due to the absence of fully amenable conditions.
With the increasing efficacy of the practice of protection and with its spread into wider groups within society, the migrants living in the city center have strengthened their ties of ownership with their living spaces, and began to fight for these spaces.publishedVersio
The conference of urban policy of Belo Horizonte: what we could know through the newspaper O Tempo
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 twentieth century was marked by an intense process of dispute over the democracy question. This dispute, waged by the end of each of the World Wars, revolved around the desirability of democracy, which resulted, however, in the hegemonic idea of democracy restricted only to the participation in the election processes (Souza Santos & Avritzer, 2002, p.39). This centralizing sense of democracy was not immune to the criticism that sought to approach to this idea a broader notion of democracy, to which are associated the ideas of social mobilization (Friedmann, 2006), public space as sphere of formation and expression of citizenship (Habermas, 1997) and the possibilities of creating autonomous individuals for the establishment of a democratic society (Castoriadis, 1982).
With the re-democratization of Brazil in the 1980s, the intense struggle of social movements resulted in the creation of a varied legal and institutional framework, aiming to bring society closer to planning and management of urban policies. However, the legal advances within the City Statute, Law 10.257/ 2001, legal benchmark that regulates the urban policy chapter of the Federal Constitution and establishes the "democratic management through direct participation" as a general guideline of urban policy, have not resulted in structural changes of urban space occupation. This observation leads one to question the effectiveness of the instrument of social participation as a counterpoint of the political game, for those who are historically excluded from the right to the city. In practice, what is observed is that these processes take place in a social context of strong heteronomy, where access to reliable information is fundamental for equity of access and participation in the decision-making processes (Souza, 2006, p.174).publishedVersio
Rural planning: comparing India and Canada
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 southRural communities help fuel economies of many countries and in some cases the national character. Most importantly, they carry the weight of feeding the world. But their issues and challenges do not get the attention they deserve. Rural economies, large and small, all over the world are dealing with the same issues – pressures of urbanization, international trade, environmental stress, and out-migration. This study compares rural areas in two countries, one is developing and the other is developed, namely, India and Canada, respectively. The Canadian focus is on one province i.e. Alberta as the situation varies considerably from province to province. Despite varying levels of urbanization, rural communities remain critical to the economic, social and environmental fabric of both countries. Interesting sets of similarities and differences that we find can help us understand the rural communities better and potentially derive some helpful lessons and policy solutions. One important common thread between the two countries is a strong governance system in their respective rural areas. India’s 74th Constitutional Amendment created a Panchayat Raj system, which is a strong system of governance in which gram panchayats (village councils) are the basic unit of local administration. Canada’s rural governance has two tier system of local government: one is upper tier regional government which consists of several municipalities including rural areas in between, grouped together under a single regional administrative and political structure. The other is rural local government that is responsible for physical and social services, housing, taxation and other local economic development. The most common form of rural municipality in the province of Alberta is a municipal district, also known as counties in other parts of Canada.publishedVersio
Top-down and bottom-up transit information? Evolutions of transit real-time information policies in two urban contexts through travelers’ experience
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 southNo urban transit system is perfect: buses may be late or deleted; one has to get a precise idea of transit schedule to travel early in the morning or late in the evening; if it works well for one mode, it may not for another. However, integrated transit systems turn out to have significant comparative advantages in terms of social demand, environmental costs and sustainable planning.
In a context of global crisis, transit investment and operation costs turn out to be challenging for governments and local authorities experiencing credit restrictions and cuts in budgets. In various cities, recent developments of real-time information systems aim to reduce passengers’ uncertainty and provide more reliability to the existing transit systems (Watkins et al. 2011; Dell’olio et al. 2011; Rizos 2010). Hence, real-time information systems are generally considered as a service provided by public authorities to promote multimodality and modal shift. Real-time information can be conveyed through a number of different tools, including multimodal panels or kiosks located in transit stations, websites and mobile applications. We also consider the case of cities where poor and segmented information about the transit service is provided by operators to travelers. In these cities, information often reflects the quality of service, which suffers major organizational, technical and financial setbacks and shortages. The majority of transit travelers can be considered as captive of the transit system because they cannot afford to commute by car.publishedVersio
The application of the Internet+ and networking management in renewal of the old city urban planning
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 southUnder the condition of market economy development, the trend of the residents' demand is becoming more and more obvious；at same time，The new normal under the background of the stock of built-up area planning requirements of quality and efficiency，But the existing configuration standards are difficult to adapt to the needs of these aspects. And in the traditional community management system and mechanism, the integration of community resources is poor, and it is easy to cause the uneven distribution of resources and waste. Based on the transformation of the old city cost is larger, the implementation difficulties and other factors, in the planning and design should minimize the rebuilding and change, mainly should rely on adjust. So the application of the Internet+ and Networking management in Renewal of the old city Urban Planning can be a good solution and offer a multi dimensional thinking and design method which can minimize changes, to maximize the resource utilization for Renewal urban plan of the old city.
This study is based on the old city reconstruction plan through the construction of the three party website data platform: Government management platform (mainly focused on the community stability and the residents and the user's comprehensive information management).publishedVersio
Technical language and the (im)possibilities for a democratic production of space
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 southUnderstanding language as a structuring element of the human relationship with reality (FOUCAULT, 2007) and viewing the city as a common and a right - not only of access, but of transformation (LEFBVRE, 2001; HARVEY, 2008) -, this paper attempts to contribute to the social inclusion debate and the democratic means of space production by unveiling some of the technical language’s effects on citizens capacities to affect and interfere both on the city decision-making processes and on space itself - a fundamental dimension to wealth and sociability production, that is, of life reproduction.
Focusing Brazilian's urban context - marked by self-production (ABRAMAT, 2005) and illegality (TIBO, 2011) -, this aim is addressed by a theoretical essay based on Pierre Bourdieu’s symbolic economy analysis strategy, in order to better understand the system of rules that determine technical language’s efficacy and highlight the social conditions of language production. Which are, in architecture and urbanism’s technical language case, fundamentally disciplinary conditions. Fitting also to approach Michael Foucault's theory - imperative for a study concerning the relationship between power and knowledge as forms of institutional social control - particularly highlighting the author’s developments on the definition of discipline.publishedVersio