Paradigms and planning practice: Conceptual and contextual considerations

The regular attention focused upon Thomas Kuhn's paradigm concept by the scientific community over a period of some three decades is, in itself, acknowledgement of the singularly erudite contribution that Kuhn has made to the development of late twentieth century scientific thought. Disciplines in the natural sciences have illustrated the validity of his paradigmatic principles by applying those principles to their fields of activity. The rigorous application of Kuhn's formulation in social science disciplines is, however, a different proposition. The intrinsic attributes of the human sciences are not congruent with those in the natural science domain, nor—by logical inference—with those of the paradigm. This places a discipline such as planning in a predicament. Planning's professional and intellectual legitimacy requires theoretical/methodological foundations such as those associated with a paradigm, but the characteristics of planning are incompatible with the precepts of Kuhn's paradigm. An alternative model is thus needed to provide planning with a tenable theoretical and practical base. It is proposed that the proposition of exemplary modes of practice be considered in this regard. Reference is made to the planning situation in South Africa for the purposes of illustrating the fundamental issues posited.     

Conforming to the expectations of the profession: a Lacanian perspective on planning practice,norms and values

This article introduces and examines aspects of Lacan's critical social theory, it examines why a Lacanian psychoanalytical appoach can be regarded as pertinent to analysis of planning processes. The article introduces the notion of the Lacanian subject and explains some of the key Lacanian concepts including the ‘Real’, the ‘Other’, and the Lacanian signifier. These concepts are then related to the acquisitions of planning education and professional skill development—what ‘shapes’ the planner? The article suggests that planning practices and decision‐making are often constrained by the planner's desire to conform to self‐imposed perceptions of professional and societal expectations. These practices contribute to maintenance of the ideological edifices which constitute social reality in that they do not necessarily materialise a planner's own values and beliefs, but rather the beliefs and values which a planner ‘thinks’ that planners are supposed to have and to express in society. The article concludes with a consideration of the implications this has for planning ethics.     

Managing Complex Spatial Planning Processes

This article surveys the way in which the idea of sustainable development is integrated into current spatial planning practice by Swedish local authorities. The Brundtland Report's definition of sustainable development calls for all dimensions of sustainability to be considered. Given that today's planning processes deal with large volumes of basic data where epistemological and technical knowledge must be co-ordinated with the actors' values and views of society, this makes spatial planning a very complex process for local planning authorities. The question is whether these ideals of sustainability are manageable in a complex planning situation. Case histories of the implementation process in Sweden indicate that local authorities seek to limit this complexity by dividing the main topics, i.e. ecological, social and economic, into separate planning processes and planning documents. Furthermore, each of the sustainability dimensions seems to be strengthened by social discourses, which can be recognised in the visions of the local plans. The various modes of planning correspond to and are strengthened by these discourses.     

城镇化新常态背景下城乡规划专业知识体系和专业能力建构

现代城市规划的发展过程中,城市规划的工作对象和内容随着时代发展而不断进行动态调整,趋于多元、复杂。基于中国城镇化新常态,从自然科学、社会科学、应用科学三个方面建构城乡规划专业知识体系,提出系统性思维能力、发现问题能力、分析问题能力、解决问题能力等四方面能力是专业人才培养的重点。     

Urban contrast and neo-Toryism: on the social and political symbolism of The Architectural Review's Townscape campaign

Using archival evidence from Hastings' unpublished writings, as well as from representative Townscape publications, this essay chronologically traces the genesis and development of Townscape as social and political project within the history of British planning theory. Revising recent scholarship on Townscape, the article posits that Townscape embraced a conservative project, in many ways resistant to the emerging welfare state and to the dominant government consensus for regionalist principles of post-war reconstruction. It argues that Townscape posited an anti-collectivist model of society, bound together, not through a consensus of aims or viewpoints, but through a composite ecology of individualizing difference, developed according to one's unique cultural role or ‘bias’. Paralleling conservative British political discourses of the period, Townscape aestheticized and naturalized such differences through a tri-partite model of social types and a metaphorical construction of society as nature. Understanding the central significance of this social and political symbolism allows for new understanding of Townscape's construction of social complexity, as well as its use of organic analogies to describe social difference.     

Planning For Community Care Facilities In New Zealand

This paper considers the planning context for the siting of community care homes in New Zealand. The objective of our analysis is to clarify the sociocultural context for local planning bodies concerning the siting of community care homes, and thus provide a better understanding of the implications of the Resource Management Act 1991 for addressing locational conflict. The paper also discusses planning issues that arise from New Zealand's increasingly complex social make up (particularly its biculturalism) which may increase the potential for conflicts in siting community care facilities.     

The planning connection between Clarence Stein and Liang Sicheng in Republican China

If Liang Sicheng's meeting with the eminent American planner Clarence Stein in 1936 started Liang's career in planning, it would be a significant event in Chinese planning history. No research has yet explored this claim on Stein's influence on Liang or Stein role in introducing American planning ideas and practices to China. To explore this cultural exchange, the author provides a more holistic understanding of their earnest friendship based on the study of archival materials including the Stein Papers at Cornell University and Liang's working diary at Tsinghua University, their own published writings, and the scholarly work on their contributions. This article reports a more complex picture of this exchange and shows that their friendship deepened while Liang was in America during 1946–1947 as Stein inspired Liang and exposed him to various American planning projects. However, in pursuing of a Chinese planning theory, Liang inherited of diverse traditions and did not rely on Stein alone.     

Museums and mortality

ABSTRACT

This article applies the idea that culture is a response to human awareness of mortality to museums through the lens of two contrasting approaches to understanding death and dying: Terror management theory (TMT), based on the work of Ernest Becker; and The Social History of Dying by Allan Kellehear. A composite theory is constructed and used to review some aspects of museum history and policy. An important factor in the origin of museums was “death planning” among private collectors who pressured the state to create institutions which could assure their afterlife through the preservation of their collections. While much contemporary theory sees museums primarily as hegemonic institutions, this suggests that they are only effective instruments of power if they carry out the primary cultural task of creating meaning in the face of mortality. Many recent museum policies claim that showing a range of cultures promotes understanding and tolerance. If, however, museums trigger unconscious awareness of death, these displays are as likely to generate intolerance. A recent development in the theory—transcendence management—however, suggests that, depending on how death awareness is triggered, the responses can be creative and open-minded rather than defensive or hostile. An important implication for recent controversies about the social impact and value of museums is that these effects can be the subject of experiment, and not just of speculation.     

NINE QUESTIONS TOWARD INFLUENCES OF EMERGING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ON URBAN ENVIRONMENT PLANNING AND DESIGN

There is no doubt that science and technology have progressed rapidly in the past decade and it is constantly challenging and refreshing people’s understanding of urban environment, human life, and even human nature itself. Meanwhile, its impact on urban environment planning and design should not be ignored and needs to be addressed promptly. The concept of science and technology is self-renewing and has no universal or authoritative definition. In a narrow sense, new science and technology may cover any new materials, technologies, and data invented or discovered by a human; in a broader sense, it might also study new behaviors, emotions, concepts, and philosophy arisen by new materials, technologies, and data. This article explores both positive and negative impacts of science and technology development on urban environment planning and design from nine aspects: image technology, image-tamed design, designers’ dilemma, virtual reality, personal mobile electronic devices, big data, human physical limits, public spaces, and nature. Instead of trying to provide definite answers to these questions, this article seeks to encourage readers’ to understand and think of these topics through a brief discussion.     

The power of urban ethnic places: cultural heritage and community life

This article investigates the role of Expo 58, the first post-war world's fair, in the development of contemporary planning strategies for administrative and cultural complexes in Brussels. It argues that the Belgian government used this Mega Event as a catalyst for the construction of high-prestige buildings situated in a central zone within the capital. It examines the early planning initiatives of the government-commissioned Cité administrative and its connections with Expo 58, thereby highlighting the engagement of the Belgian Welfare State with modern architecture in the planning of prestige projects. This article thus argues for an understanding of the great event and the Cité administrative as part of the post-war government's ‘Exhibitionary Complex’, and using the case of Brussels suggests ways in which the impact of Mega Events could extend beyond their material remains.     

Survey and the assimilation of a modernist narrative in urbanism

The presence of civic and regional survey as a locus of discussion in early British planning texts is closely associated with the involvement of the Scottish biologist planner Patrick Geddes in the early planning movement. This paper reads the Geddesian survey idea and its assimilation into planning discourse as the expression of a modern apology of planning. Geddes's understanding of survey places science and society in a relationship in which society is not merely determined by the progressive development of scientific insights. Instead, survey is understood as a process in which a growing awareness of the urban environment encourages an informed and self-conscious citizenry to take charge of its own future. In the Geddesian survey-project the citizen appears as the modern subject, caught in an ambiguous relationship to the environment. He or she seems to be fully determined by the environment, while at the same time able to shape that environment freely and independently. The effort to ground planning in scientific survey inserts the planning process within a logic of environmental determinism, while attempting to safeguard a place for planning as an emancipated act of self-determination. Planning appears both as a process determined by 'nature' as well as the quintessential expression of the human con trol over 'nature'. Survey, presented as preliminary to planning, is understood as a thought vehicle which opens up a space for the development of the modern plan in its full reformist breath of both physical reform and social reconstruction.     

Planning with half a mind: Why planners resist emotion

Planning aims to change people’s behavior, and success depends on understanding human motivation. However, Enlightenment culture discourages understanding emotional experiences central to human activity. Many social sciences and professions have given increased attention to emotional concerns, but most planners hold fast to a view that people think and act only rationally. This article shows why emotional understanding matters for planning, examines the nature of emotional experience, and describes how Enlightenment culture hinders comprehension. The article reviews studies of emotion in the social sciences and professions and contrasts them with a paucity of published interest in emotion in planning. The article interprets planners’ resistance to emotion in terms of the nature of professions and societal needs for order.     

Network structure,complexity, and adaptation in water resource systems

Infrastructure systems are often complex. Many have both natural and built components. For such systems, including water resource networks, resilience is a common policy goal. In the formalised study of complex systems, the structure and function of networks can contribute directly to system resilience. One branch of complex systems studies, network science, describes how connectivity between individual components can explain some system-wide properties of growth and reliability. Water resource systems analysis has only begun to apply techniques from network theory and complexity science to assess adaptability and resilience. We present an analysis of connectivity in a network model of California's water infrastructure system using several network science techniques. Results indicate that nodes in California's water system are clustered but without scale-free properties. The network originates from a mixture of top-down (centralised) and bottom-up (dispersed interactions of parties) planning. This structure provides managers greater flexibility to use local and distant water sources. We use the analysis to illustrate how several disciplinary notions of resilience apply to civil infrastructure planning. We also explore how adaptability, not just complexity, influences resilience in planning. Creating systems that can respond to future changes must be an important policy goal in planning civil infrastructure.     

Notes on Contributors

The development of the one stop shop approach is seen as a means to providing a customer focused planning service. Research in England and Scotland, for example, suggests a tendency to the emergence of a common 'one stop shop' approach in terms of an administrative model with defined responsibilities and relations between those departments involved in the planning and development service. This article reviews the research evidence about the effectiveness of the 'one stop shop' approach to integrated planning and development functions. It reports on the nature of emerging arrangements for securing such an integrated approach in the interests of planning customers. The article suggests there are advantages to this form of planning service.     

The making and impacts of a classic text in megaproject management: The case of cost overrun research

This paper presents a case study of the making and impacts of a classic text in the field of megaproject management. It focuses on Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette Skamris Holm and Søren Buhl's article Cost Underestimation in Public Works Projects: Error or Lie?, which was published in the Journal of the American Planning Association in 2002. The paper shows that classic texts can have a significant impact on megaproject planning theory and practice. Within the academy, classic texts are those that are widely cited and come to define the theoretical terrain, types of research questions that are asked and methods used in subsequent research. They also directly contribute to new megaproject planning methods and shape the public discourse on megaproject delivery. The paper concludes by identifying the key ingredients that make a classic text.     

Social engineering and participation in Anglo-Swedish housing 1945–1976: Ralph Erskine's vernacular plan

This article appraises the career of architect Ralph Erskine focusing on the context for his contribution to Swedish and British social housing and planning. Erskine's formative experience during the 1930s and his subsequent transnational career are utilized to explore the mutual influences of planning ideals across national boundaries. The Garden City ideal, Functionalism and the urban village concept are considered for their long-term contribution to his work. In addition, vernacular architecture and participatory planning are explored as influences on the evolution of his community architecture vision by the 1970s. Drawing on evidence from urban developments in Britain and Sweden, the discussion demonstrates that Erskine's cultural transfer of international planning ideals essentialized aspects of British and Swedish historical culture. The article concludes with a discussion of the 1970s and Erskine's role in the redevelopment of Byker in Newcastle upon Tyne. This process was hailed as a pioneer moment in the English community architecture movement. However, this study demonstrates that Erskine should be distinguished from the grassroots activism of the community architecture movement. Rather the discussion emphasizes that his participatory planning was underpinned by a structural tension between social engineering and democratic participation that was generated and reinforced by his transnational career.     

The project of planning: An interview with John Friedmann

This article contains an interview with John Friedmann. The interview covers two core areas in John Friedmann's work: (a) The history of planning, from the beginning of the industrial era till today and (ft) radical planning and social mobilization. In relation to radical planning and social mobilization the Utopian aspects of John Friedmann's work are discussed together with the forces of social development, that must be counted on to make the Utopian visions and radical planning materialize. Finally, the role of radical planner is considered.     

双重动力机制下的大学空间——我国当代大学校园规划的空间生产与空间形制

本文通过分析我国当代大学校园规划的空间形制与空间生产规律,指出威权与资本是潜在控制大学校园空间的双重动力。无论学校领导、师生员工还是设计业界都该对其无意识的意识形态作用方式具有清醒的认识,从而作出积极与自觉的反应。     

国家模式建构与地方差异——京沪两地1950年代规划编制的苏联影响之比较

1950年代对当代中国城乡规划发展是起承转合的十年,以全面向苏联老大哥学习开始,到“以苏为鉴”结束.一个普遍的印象是,京沪两地在1950年代规划编制中对待苏联规划模式的反应有着明显的地方差异.时至今日,北京与莫斯科两座城市从城市空间格局、风貌到市政设施布局,仍然呈现出较高的相似度;而同期苏联专家在上海的规划意图虽然在文本中被谨慎地遵循着,但从1950年代末完成的规划总图和后期实施上,上海更多地延续了1940年代大上海都市计划的现代主义规划模式.本文通过史料挖掘呈现京沪两地在同时期尤其是总体规划编制演进中对套用苏联模式反应的地方差异,以探究中国规划中的苏联影响及本土化发生.