Perspecta 20, Perspecta 21

In preparation of the JAE Jubilee issue many invitations were made to respond to the paragraph printed below. Because of a highly condensed schedule in the production of this special issue, the cut-off date for receipt of articles had to be moved up and several individuals, whose invited responses were in the final stages of preparation or even in transit to JAE, could not be included in that issue. This is regrettable; however, during the upcoming year we will be printing those articles and again invite our readership to respond and discuss those issues put forward in the Jubilee statement.—Ed.     

From the Ground Up

Abstract

Over the coming year, readers of the JAE will see a significant expansion of the Reviews section to include critical commentary on exhibits, symposia, competitions, buildings, practices, films, and, of course, books. In enlarging the scope of this section, the editors wish to open a dialogue and critique around research, modes of inquiry, and new forms of practice as they influence both architectural production and education. In this first article, Dan Hoffman was invited to provide a context for understanding the work of architectural firms such as Duvall Decker whose practices promote new forms of extramural research and inquiry.—The Editors     

The Pain of Ruins: Croatian Architecture under Siege

The following Op Arch article concerns the destruction underway in the Republic of Croatia, formerly part of Yugoslavia. Since Professor Zaknic completed his article, the destruction has not abated, but increased and spread into Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the destruction of lives and buildings has been, if anything, greater. The world response to both tragedies has been, as Zaknic indicates, tepid, by contrast with the militant response to Sadam Hussein just a few months earlier, a telling reminder that neither people nor cultural monuments matter as much as oil in today's world. As with all wars, brutality begets brutality and atrocities have by now been committed by all sides. I hope that by the time this article appears, it will not be an account of an ongoing tragedy but rather a record of a past one. If not, I join with Professor Zaknic in urging JAE readers to urge their representatives in Congress to press for an immediate end to the fighting.     

Op Arch

Abstract

JAE's White Issue is long overdue. The notion that architectural experimentation requires a rigorous feedback between design and research has been at play in design pedagogy since at least the 1960s and 1970s, which included the seminal research studio by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas ¹; the rise of operations research and systems engineering; the urban networks research of Shadrach Woods, the Smithsons, Constantinos Doxiadis, or Kenzo Tange; and the structure and materials research of Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto, and Robert Le Ricolais, to name but a few. Concerns about the deterministic instrumentalism of systems thinking led to a new wave of humanism and composition, seen especially in the postmodernist uses of both historical examples and junkspace vernaculars as a Disneyesque brand image. The work of Venturi and Scott Brown, ironically, was to lead the way on the heels of the “duck vs. decorated shed” conclusions of Learning from Las Vegas.² Unlike most postmodernists, however, Venturi and Scott Brown did not abandon research, and their understanding of the relationships between pop culture, branding, and marketing techniques remains sophisticated and timely.     

The politics of PCBs‐a viewpoint: part i

This paper deals with Canadian and American regulation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as a hazardous substance. It is argued that PCB policy was initiated in response to a health crisis. Later the economic implications of strict crisis legislation became apparent and conflicts developed along these lines. This has made for a politically laden debate over scientific information, and a more cautious approach to political action on PCBs.

This case study lends credibility to the broader thesis about the distinctive features of North American environmental politics, that (a) there is politically significant public concern where health issues are perceived; (b) governments respond to this but are compelled to act as promoters of a free enterprise economic system; (c) relevant economic interests tend to resist and deny the need for regulation. Environmentalism is a challenge to the status quo in that it raises the fundamental issue of accountability in economic practice. As will be demonstrated in Part Two, the complexity of the issue has exacerbated the controversy surrounding toxic pollution.     

Readiness for contingency: punctuation,poise, and co-design

ABSTRACT

How do we ready ourselves to intervene responsively in the contingent situations that arise in co-designing to make change? How do we attune to group dynamics and respond ethically to unpredictable developments when working with ‘community’? This paper challenges co-design conventions that focus too tightly on formal process by addressing what happens at the moment when we step into situations to alter them with others. This is intrinsically relational and we expose the politics of practice that cannot be replicated or interchanged. Instead, we suggest that practices of readying are constituted by personal histories, experiences, philosophies, and cultures and demonstrate this by giving reflexive accounts of our dimensions of preparation. We have organised these accounts around the qualities of punctuation and poise as a way to draw out some less easily articulated aspects of co-design practice. These narratives are distinct, yet reveal complementary theories and worldviews that shape ontologies and, in turn, shape the experience – and politics – of collaboration.     

Practice-based learning in construction projects: a literature review

Construction project managers often face problems when trying to change work practices. Management research addresses these problems by offering stylized and abstract models; unfortunately, they may say little about the actual work practices that managers want to change. Practice theory offers an alternative way to address practice-related managerial problems, arguing that learning is a central enabler of performing practices. While some early research on practice-based learning in construction management exists, an understanding of how this theory has been applied is lacking. To address this limitation, a systematic literature review of 15 published construction management articles was conducted, the articles being divided into five practice-related analytical categories: participation, context, meaning production, power and becoming a practitioner to identify the areas of theory discussed. Participation and context were discussed more in the published articles than meaning production, power and becoming a practitioner, which might suggest that the latter categories offer more possibilities for future research. Further, the articles were analysed through a Lakatosian research programme lens, showing that a progressive research programme exists in practice-based studies in construction management. These findings provide avenues for future construction management studies seeking to apply practice-based learning theory to understand learning in construction projects better.     

In-situ testing at the U.S. Department of energy's waste isolation pilot plant

The in-situ Testing Program at the U.S. Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is providing answers to questions about the efficacy of storing radioactive wastes in the geologic medium of natural salt deposits. Specific issues, such as the capability of disposal rooms to adequately confine the waste and the ability of salt beds to isolate radiation from the environment, are integral to the safety of long-term waste storage. The in-situ Testing Program is aimed at the total repository system, emphasizing the concepts of waste confinement and isolation. The three technical areas—Thermal/Structural Interactions (TSI), Waste Package Performance (WPP), and Plugging and Sealing (P&S)—together respond to the many issues associated with these concepts. Some of the in-situ tests closely simulate the two-dimensional geometry of earlier laboratory tests and, therefore, afford a direct comparison between the models and the field. Other tests simulate the proposed repository configuration, so that any effects created by this configuration can be identified. The challenge faced by the in-situ Testing Program is to investigate the issue of radioactive waste storage in a salt repository environment well enough to provide dependable predictions of the long-term effects of waste disposal. The program, which is expected to be active into the 1990s, will continue to gather important information for improving the repository designs.     

The Big Society and the Conjunction of Crises: Justifying Welfare Reform and Undermining Social Housing

Abstract

The idea of the “Big Society” can be seen as culmination of a long-standing debate about the regulation of welfare. Situating the concept within governance theory, the article considers how the UK coalition government has justified a radical restructuring of welfare provision, and considers its implications for housing provision. Although drawing on earlier modernization processes, the article contends that the genesis for welfare reform was based on an analysis that the government was forced to respond to a unique conjunction of crises: in morality, the state, ideology and economics. The government has therefore embarked upon a programme, which has served to undermine the legitimacy of the social housing sector (most notably in England), with detrimental consequences for residents and raising significant dilemmas for those working in the housing sector.     

Critical perspectives on network governance in urban regeneration, community involvement and integration

Significant claims have been made about the benefits of network governance and management in securing community involvement and assisting social integration in complex urban regeneration programmes. The move from vertical to horizontal forms of coordination, and the assumption of a more equal power distribution between participants, have combined with an emphasis on mutuality and trust to present networks as a promising mechanism for pluriform involvement and collective decision-making. Often this promise runs ahead of the evidence of how network governance functions in practice, the opportunities for different actors to influence the process and the often disappointing outcomes of joint decision-making. This special issue contributes to the ‘second generation of research on governance networks’ by tackling key questions relating to the sources of governance network failure and success. Building on the articles in this special issue, we explore these questions in relation to urban regeneration, community involvement and the integration of minority groups in The Netherlands, Sweden and England. This article reviews the articles in this special issue from the perspective of Klijn and Skelcher’s (2007) four conjectures on democracy and governance networks and Sørensen and Torfing’s (2007) four conditions for democratic anchorage. It also suggests ways in which the research agenda on networks in urban regeneration, community involvement and integration might be developed.     

Tracking Our Footsteps

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: We conduct a systematic reading of all articles published in the past 30?years in three U.S.-based general planning journals, Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA), Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER), and Journal of Planning Literature (JPL), using latent Dirichlet allocation, a text mining technique. We find that certain research themes remain important in the past 3 decades, such as planning process, planning methods, and land use/growth management, whereas others have lost their prominent status, such as planning theory and planning education. New fields such as food systems have emerged during the study period. Editorial regimes appear to be associated with theme dynamics.

Takeaway for practice: In this study we demonstrate a text mining method to effectively summarize a large amount of text data and track planning researchers’ footsteps in the study of planning issues reflected from published research articles. We identify past and emerging research trends in the studied journals that can help scholars situate their work in the literature and practitioners find collaboration opportunities. It also helps professional associations such as the American Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) and the APA open up new conference tracks and/or specialization groups/divisions so they can reflect the ever-changing interests of their memberships in a timely manner.     

Visions that change. Articulating the politics of participatory design

ABSTRACT

In this paper we draw upon the articles included in this special issue to question how to re-politicise co-design and participatory design (PD). Many authors in these fields have recently made a plea to re-engage with ‘big issues’ as a way to address this concern. At the same time, there is an increased attention into the micro-politics of the relations that are built-in co-design and PD. These two approaches are sometimes presented as working against each other with a de-politicising dynamic as a result. The editorial hypothesis of this issue is that designing visions can turn the tension between addressing the big issues and close attention to the particularity of relations into a motor for re-politicising design. Through engaging with literature, the articles presented in this issue, and two fieldwork cases that explore this dynamic, we discovered that paying careful attention to the activity of designing visions can support re-politicisation. While visions enable us to develop relations with close attention to their politics, building relations supports a more political approach to designing visions on issues. We argue that vision-making can particularly support re-politicisation when it enables the articulation of the political by relating its situated reality to how it unfolds in space and time.     

Spatial aspects of pollution control when pollutants have synergistic effects: Evidence from a differential game with asymmetric information

An asymmetric information differential game is utilized to explore the normative issue: should environmental regulations be carried out locally or centrally? Modeling localities as having superior information, or more leniency to adopt new environmental regulations, results from simulations indicate that local control Pareto dominates central control when enough synergism occurs between pollutants. In contrast to predictions made by those responsible for framing US environmental policy in the 1960s, these findings suggest an expanded future role for local governments in providing environmental protection, particularly in light of Tiebout's (1956) analysis of consumers who “vote with their feet” for their preferred basket of public services. “Practically all the things we've done in the federal government are like things Al Smith did as governor in New York.”–Franklin Roosevelt (Schlesinger, 1960, p. 520) Received: June 1997/Accepted: July 1998     

Methods for processing aquatic mosses used as monitors of heavy metals

An evaluation is reported of methods used to prepare mosses for analysis when required for monitoring metal pollution. Fontinalis antipyretica and Rhynchostegium riparioides taken from the River Hoëgne, Belgium, were used for the study. The stages in preparation studied critically were the storage of the moss after it had been collected from the river, washing, choice of which particular fraction to use and the conditions for final drying prior to digestion. For any one particular treatment, the concentrations of metals analysed (Ca, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb) were usually lower in Fontinalis than Rhynchostegium. Metal concentrations found as a result of the various treatments differed markedly for some metals, including Zn, Cd and Pb. However no one sequence of methods is ideal for all purposes. Criteria that need to be considered when selecting methods include the time and facilities available and whether the moss is to be used for monitoring long-term or short-term pollution.     

Slide rule estimates of fire growth

In the November 1985 issue ofFire Technology, the authors presented prediction methods for estimating fire growth in compartments. Here they provide an example of the use of those methods. Reference: J. R. Lawson and J. G. Quintiere, Example illustrating Slide Rule Estimates of Fire Growth,Fire Technology, Vol. 22, No. 1, February 1986, p. 45.This paper is a contribution of the National Bureau of Standards and is not subject to copyright.     

Media and the senses in the making of religious experience: an introduction

ABSTRACT

This introduction places the articles presented in this special issue in a broader frame by outlining current issues in the study of religious material and visual culture. It argues for an understanding of religion as a practice of mediation to which media, understood as “sensational forms” are intrinsic. Such sensational forms are central to construing specific religious subjectivities, generating religious experience, and calling upon the divine by appealing to, and tuning, the senses and the body in ways peculiar to the specificity of religious traditions.     

Project affinity: the role of emotional attachment in construction projects

Although a wide range of human and organizational factors have been found to be important in the operation of projects, those determined by cultural variables are less well defined. One such influence concerns the notion of ‘project affinity’, the commitment and attachment by stakeholders and participants to projects and their outcomes. The temporal nature and transient involvement context provided by construction projects arguably presents a climate in which many participants are less likely to display commitment to its goals. This note is concerned with the issue of whether an attachment to a project's goals or to the completed product can lead to improved commitment among those involved. The concept of project affinity was developed in the course of a case study investigation in which operatives' attitudes towards the construction of a cancer research facility were explored. Because of the contribution of the facility to the future care of cancer sufferers, the concept of project affinity proved helpful in understanding a factor that appeared to be influencing the commitment of those involved. The results suggest a complementary concept to that of ‘project chemistry’ (c.f. Nicolini, 2002 Nicolini, D. 2002. In search of ‘project chemistry’.. Construction Management and Economics, 20: 167–77.  ).     

Determination of in situ uniaxial compressive strength of coal seams based on geophysical data

The central issue for pillar design in underground coal mining is the in situ uniaxial compressive strength (σ _cm). The paper proposes a new method for estimating in situ uniaxial compressive strength in coal seams based on laboratory strength and P wave propagation velocity. It describes the collection of samples in the Bonito coal seam, Fontanella Mine, southern Brazil, the techniques used for the structural mapping of the coal seam and determination of seismic wave propagation velocity as well as the laboratory procedures used to determine the strength and ultrasonic wave velocity. The results obtained using the new methodology are compared with those from seven other techniques for estimating in situ rock mass uniaxial compressive strength.