Beyond designer diversity: Planners,public space and a critical politics of difference

Abstract

This article is concerned with the connection between the planning of public space, social justice and the politics of difference. I argue that, to remedy injustice in public spaces, planning must be informed by a critical politics of difference, which can distinguish between various kinds of social difference. The article outlines some important dimensions of a critical politics of difference with reference to three recent conflicts in Australian public spaces: over graffiti, a women's pool and the policing of public spaces in Perth.     

Planning the Green New Deal: Climate Justice and the Politics of Sites and Scales

Abstract

Climate change and the rise of a grassroots–legislative political–environmental movement in the United States should change how urban planners think and act on spatial change and social justice. After the 2018?U.S. elections, organizing movements and progressive legislators endorsed the Green New Deal. In this Viewpoint I look at the Green New Deal’s potential implications for urban planning. I analyze it in reference to the 1930s’ New Deal inspirations and current climate and urban challenges, and illustrate the contradictions between large-scale spatial change and community-scale social justice. I explain how the imperatives of the Green New Deal, in conjunction with the shifting sites, scales, and politics of planning for climate change, should encourage planners to reframe their spaces and politics of practice toward a reconceptualized urban regional scale and a new politics of more public participation.     

Communicative planning as counter-power

This article presents a theory of communicative planning in which the power of citizens is conceived as a resource in the promotion of long-term planning against the short-term interests of investors in public planning. Its point of departure is the depiction of three planning paradigms – traditional synoptic, incremental and participatory planning – and a critical discussion of different theories within the latter. In the light of this, it is argued that, in practice, planning authorities most often regard public participation as a problem, rather than as a potential. The article dismisses this conception and (a) conceptualizes planning on the basis of a Habermasian theory of communicative action and power, (b) shows that the participation of citizens is necessary to secure the inclusion of ethical and aesthetic rationalities in the planning process, and also that (c) citizens may constitute a counterpower to short-term investor interests in planning by (d) strengthening the respect for long-term solutions and the common good. This becomes a structural necessity when it comes to securing sustainability and democratic justice in planning. The article conceptualizes the difference between planning and politics, since in the former, power is constituted in the actual process, not given in advance.     

The politics of public space planning in Singapore

This paper considers the role of, and hence the social and political significance that has been accorded to, the design and provision of public spaces in the urban planning process. This approach gives useful insights into understanding the role these spaces have played in the colonial and post‐colonial city of Singapore. This discussion argues that public spaces in both the colonial and the post‐colonial city are essentially constructions by the ruling élite and its planning regime and are thus politically charged. Popular involvement has been singularly lacking in the planning and development of public spaces in post‐colonial Singapore. Instead, the general public has been marginalized in the creation of these spaces by the colonial and post‐colonial state. The completeness of this exclusion is shown through the demise of most of the vital and liveliest, albeit previously appropriated, public spaces of the colonial city. Public housing and the re‐invention of public spaces provided by a new social and political order followed the end of British colonial rule. In the following discussion, the role and significance of public spaces through the colonial period and then in the post‐colonial developmental state are examined. It is shown that public space provision by government authorities has served initially more as an imposition of colonial ideals and social segregation, and latterly as a reification of the prevailing political ideology, than in meeting real public needs for such spaces. A major focus of this article is the use of public space as a political tool of control by the state over its denizens in the Foucauldian sense, and how this could be construed even through different systems of governance and political agendas in Singapore.     

城市绿地促进人群健康的作用途径:理论框架与实践启示

Urban green spaces can not only offer a wide range of ecosystem services, but also promote public health. Most of existing studies have effectually explored the correlation between urban green spaces and public health, but failed to dig the complex impact mechanism behind. This article firstly goes into the positive and negative impacts of urban green spaces on public health, and proposes a theoretical framework of the impact mechanism from perspectives of physical activity encouragement, stress management, social cohesion enhancement, and regulating / supporting services provision by ecosystems. On this basis, 6 health-oriented urban green space system planning strategies are proposed, including promoting the availability, improving the accessibility, enhancing the visibility, optimizing the spatial composition, constructing a network pattern of urban green spaces, and reducing the negative impacts of urban green spaces on public health. The research results can provide theoretical grounding and reference for public health promotion and sustainable urban development to exert more health benefits with limited urban green spaces.     

Restricted Mobilities: Access to,and Activities in,Public and Private Spaces

Privatization of public spaces in the contemporary city has increased over the past few decades, but only a few studies have approached this trend from a mobility perspective. Therefore, this article seeks to make a contribution to the field by exploring two Australian examples of private spaces in the city, gated communities and shopping centres, through the ‘mobility’ lenses. The article illustrates how different mobility systems enable and/or restrict public access to private–public spaces, and it points out that proprietary communities create an unequal potential for human movement and access in the city. The main argument in the article is that many mobility systems enable specialization of places that are targeted at a special section of the population. This means that various forms of mobilities (e.g. automobility, virtual mobile communication technologies) not only create new opportunities for urban life, but also serve as one of the most critical components in the production of new exclusion and stratification. In conclusion, the article therefore suggests that future urban research and planning also need to apply the mobility perspective in order to understand the mechanisms between flows of movement and the understanding fixed spaces in the cities, and how different mobility systems play an important role in sustaining the exclusiveness that often characterizes private/public spaces. Likewise, from a mobility perspective, the specific consequences that the proprietary communities have on the surrounding communities seem to be an important further question for research and planning.     

New State Spaces and Contested Territories: A Critical Analysis of Joint Regional Planning Panels

This article critically analyses the Joint Regional Planning Panels (JRPPs), a series of planning panels in the New South Wales planning system predominantly made up of appointed planning experts to determine ‘regionally significant development’. The stated intent of the JRPPs is to improve objectivity and transparency in planning decision-making, however, this has come at the expense of the traditional role of local councils in determining planning applications. Key to this analysis are Brenner's concept of ‘new state spaces’ as evolutionary models of urban governance which act between conventional levels and hierarchies of political authority, and Allmendinger and Haughton's conceptualisation of new state spaces of planning operating in ‘soft spaces’ and ‘fuzzy boundaries’. This article explores the changing nature and function of the JRPPs since their establishment in 2009, and highlights that while opportunities exist for new state spaces to ‘harden’ as enduring tiers of urban governance, there is a pervasive need for connections between territory and politics to give popular legitimacy to permanent shifts of authority.     

Measuring accessibility and utilization of public spaces in Famagusta

Public spaces have a central role, both physically and functionally, in urban planning and development. Many urban theorists state their significant role as one of the principal components of a healthy urban setting. This is in addition to their functional role, when they increase a sense of community when intensive social interaction takes place in these areas. However, recently, they have started to lose significance, when they are neglected in the urban planning process, or when existing spaces are lost. Additionally, accessibility and utilization of these areas decreases, since public spaces are neglected in urban planning and development processes. In this study, public spaces are assessed in terms of accessibility and utilization, regarding the effects of rapid urban growth on their physical and functional structure. This study first evaluates the significance of public spaces in an urban setting; second, determines the variables effective in terms of their accessibility and utilization; third, assesses the factors affecting the accessibility and utilization of public spaces through a questionnaire survey on the role of public spaces in social interaction, and concludes with an evaluation of the results and suggestions for further research.     

博弈论对城市规划决策的若干启示

城市规划作为公共空间等资源的配置手段,在很大程度上是公共政策的制定与实施。在城市规划决策过程中,政府部门、企业、社会团体、个人成为博弈的参与方。博弈中的理性、博弈过程和博弈实效都将对城市规划产生重大影响。根据博弈论制定激励和约束机制,从而平衡行政机关与相对人的利益,是保障城市规划发挥作用的重要手段。     

A Study on the Legislation of Territorial and Spatial Planning in Relation to Public Health Emergencies

The government's attention to and intervention in public health emergencies is one of the causes for the legislation on modern urban planning. It is now a critical period in the legislative formulation of China's territorial and spatial planning, which coincides with the unexpected onslaught of COVID-19. This study examines the relationship between public health emergencies and the legislations of territorial and spatial planning. It argues that the problems of spatial planning in response to public health emergencies primarily lie in the gaps between planning regulations and public health, emergency management, the overdue institutionalization of planning techniques, the lack of focus of planning legislations, etc. The legislation of territorial and spatial planning should be based on the governance of urban safety, health, and emergency service facilities, which aims to improve the emergency service facility system, the innovation of planning formulation technical system, and strengthen the responsiveness of planning to public health emergencies, so as to create high-quality, high-class, and resilient urban and rural spaces.     

Community-Based Planning as a Source of Political Change: The Transit Equity Movement of Los Angeles' Bus Riders Union

Metropolitan regions in the U.S. are increasingly turning to public transit to address the serious problems of air pollution and traffic congestion. But they may not be capable of simultaneously luring suburban commuters out of their cars while maintaining good access to dispersing metropolitan opportunities for people who cannot drive. After an expensive rail rapid transit system to the suburbs was built in Los Angeles, a grassroots citizen movement used a civil rights lawsuit to force policymakers to meet the needs of poor, minority bus riders in the inner city. This article demonstrates a link between politics and planning by first identifying the crucial political changes, using a model from social movement theory, then examining how planning skills were used by citizen activists when they induced these changes. It suggests a new direction for equity planning, in which practice is based in community institutions acting as a complement to government planning.     

Space of Risk: The Contribution of Planning Policies to Conflicts in Cities,Lessons from Nazareth

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 planners to avoid the production of spaces of risk through new techniques of collaborative planning.     

城市绿色空间作为变革的力量：全球 智慧与中国视角

探讨了城市绿色空间在提升人类健康和福祉方面 的关键作用，并将全球研究与中国的实际情况相结合。详细 讨论了绿色景观在心理、社会和环境方面的益处，并强调了 其在风景园林、大众卫生和城市规划等多领域的重要性。其 后，探讨了绿色空间的平等使用权、最佳接触量及文化维度 等关键问题。最后，重点讨论了中国在城市化和绿色空间分 配方面所面临的独特挑战，以期为未来的设计策略和政策发 展提供依据。     

层次分析法在城市公共空间景观设施评价中的应用

对现状城市公共空间景观设施品质的准确评价与判断是城市公共空间建设的重要内容之一。该文采用层次分析法(AHP)并结合城市公共空间景观设施的特点构建一套城市公共空间景观设施评价因素体系,即7个一级评价因素,25个二级评价因素;为今后城市公共空间景观设施的评价,规划设置与建设提供参考依据。并分析了城市公共空间景观设施评价对景观设施规划建设的作用与意义。     

从文化产业的振兴到城市文化空间的塑造——以柏林为例

着重研究柏林文化产业的行业发展特征及其空间结构。从文化产业的特点和发展规律入手,分析柏林文化产业在空间上集聚的特点,尤其关注文化产业内部各行业的区位选择,总结文化产业、文化企业与文化设施之间的关系。基于文化产业异质化、小型化和集聚性的产业特征,传统的城市规划手段和工具应作相应的调整,以把握文化产业的发展规律。因此,柏林的实例旨在厘清文化产业、创意空间、城市规划三者的联系,明确城市规划作为公共政策,在推动文化产业发展中的重要作用,以及在塑造创意空间的角色。     

Cities and memory: a history of the role of memorials in urban design from the Renaissance to Canberra

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, there has been a significant revival of interest and growth in numbers of public memorials – sculptures and structures in public spaces that convey information and social attitudes about past persons, events and ideas. This renaissance has been most marked in national capital cities. To better understand this recent revival of interest in memorials, and their potential to reproduce or transform social and spatial relationships within cities, this paper examines the historical evolution of the role and form of memorials within the overall planning and development of Western capital cities, both existing and new, from their origins in Ancient Rome and through their later development from the Renaissance to the beginning of Modernism. It charts memorials’ ongoing contribution to the role of the capital city as a diagram that defines and communicates national history, identity and politics, contrasting this to ways that memorials have adapted to changing technological and political realities of land development and management.     

The effects of changes to the post-socialist urban planning framework on public open spaces in multi-story housing areas: A view from Nis,Serbia

This study considers how changes to the post-socialist urban planning framework have affected the treatment of public open space in the transformation of existing mass-housing areas and newly developed multi-story housing areas for the city of Nis, Serbia. The study focuses on quantitative and qualitative changes as well as the physical characteristics of public open spaces, evaluating environmental comfort, safety, accessibility, privacy and intensity of social interactions. The investigation is based on a comparative analysis of three case studies in Nis, which are representative of different developmental, institutional and planning periods. The research indicates a regressive approach in the planning for and treatment of public open space. It also suggests that within the limited economic capacity of local authorities, investors and buyers, the market-oriented post-socialist urban planning framework can lead to spatial and functional fragmentation in housing areas and the degradation or disappearance of not only the public spaces but of open spaces in general.     

Conceptions of justice in the planning of the new urban landscape – Recent changes in the comprehensive planning discourse in Malmö, Sweden

The Swedish Planning and Building Act (PBL) from 1987, revised in 2011, stipulates that an important task of comprehensive planning is to secure both substantive and procedural justice. However, because of the municipal planning monopoly, the individual municipalities are free to decide how these goals can best be achieved. This article focuses on the ways interpretations of justice have changed over a 10-year period in one selected municipality, Malmö in southern Sweden. Analyses of the comprehensive planning discourse in this municipality reveal that when it comes to substantive justice, discussions of structural inequality and segregation have gradually been replaced by discussions of social cohesion, while at the same time discussions of procedural justice and the need to create public spheres in which underprivileged groups are allowed a voice, have been replaced by discussions of open public spaces, allowing different groups to see each other. Though the issue of social justice seems to be downplayed in the urban planning discourse for the time being, counterforces within city administration are questioning the prevailing line of development.     

浅谈中国当代城市公共空间设计理念的演变

论述并分析了当代城市公共空间在1978年改革开放以来经历的三个阶段的转变中设计理念的演变,分析了导致这3次演变的动因,并讨论了经济、文化等社会因素与我国当代城市公共空间发展的关系以及人对于城市公共空间的影响。     

基于网络口碑大数据的城市步行与自行车交通廊道选线规划--以北京市海淀区为例

通过大数据分析城市公共服务空间对公众出行的影响是步行和自行车交通廊道选线规划的重要步骤。已有研究主要聚焦空间分布规律展开分析,对公共设施服务能力内在差异性考虑较少。引入网络口碑大数据,通过口碑分值表征城市公共服务空间的吸引力,在此基础上构建基于网络口碑大数据的城市步行和自行车交通廊道选线规划思路,并以北京市海淀区为例展开实证分析。结合最小累积阻力模型和网络分析法等方法,最终构建由商业综合、休闲娱乐、生活服务3类廊道组成的步行和自行车交通廊道网络。网络口碑大数据兼具空间分布和口碑质量的双重属性,能够帮助规划者和决策者立足区域视角识别与量化部分类型公共服务设施的内在差异性,其支撑下的步行和自行车交通廊道规划更加强调公众使用满意度对选线过程的影响,在未来城市交通规划领域有较好的应用前景。