The Twisting Paths to Planning Reform in Scotland

In the context of modernization in the public sector and the reforms of land use planning practices, this article traces the paths followed in Scotland to articulate an appropriate agenda for change to create a modern planning system. Fundamental to this drive for public sector reform is devolution, and the search to articulate an appropriate form of state apparatus for a modern Scottish state. Context, however, is all-important. Research and extensive consultation have paved the path to a planning White Paper, Modernizing the Planning System, and a draft Planning Bill. This article examines the archaeology of the Scottish road to reform, and considers the nature of the changing practices associated with devolution in Scotland.

We are therefore determined to build a planning system that balances the right of individuals to develop their property and the interests of the wider community. This White Paper outlines our detailed proposals for modernisation of the planning system, to secure greater fairness and equity, a system where everyone's views are listened to and taken proper account of.

First Minister, Jack McConnell, 2005 McConnell, J. 2005. “Scottish Executive”. In Modernising the Planning System: A White Paper, Edinburgh: Scottish Executive.  [Google Scholar]     

Reading Through a Plan

Problem: Planners may read plans often, but the profession continues to view the interpretation of plan content as something that is either too obvious or too unimportant to require explicit discussion. Plans are seldom adequately interpreted. This is regrettable because plans contain a rich variety of content and meaning.

Purpose: This article calls for planners to “read through” plans, not just to grasp their essential ideas or the means of implementing those ideas, but also to perceive additional levels of meaning relating to a) a plan's place within a larger intellectual sphere, b) a plan's statement on the social and political values of the time, and c) a plan as a part of the history of the planning profession and the life of cities.

Methods: I propose a visual approach to plan reading descended from Panofsky's (1939 Panofsky, E. 1939. Studies in iconology: Humanistic themes in the art of the Renaissance, New York, NY: Harper and Row.  [Google Scholar]) theory of iconology and use this to examine three very different plans that describe different size cities (small, large, very large) during different periods over the past 80 years (the 1930s, 1960s, 2000s). I analyze three levels of meaning in each plan: its factual meaning, or “plain sense” (Mandelbaum, 1990 Mandelbaum, S. J. 1990. Reading plans. Journal of the American Planning Association, 56(3): 350–358. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]); its contextual meaning, or relation to political, social, economic, and physical conditions; and its temporal meaning, or setting within the scope of observations made by other plan readers in the perspective of elapsed time.

Results and conclusions: Factual readings show that information may be found in diverse aspects of a plan document, from seemingly superficial aspects like its cover to unarguably central elements such as recommendations. Factual readings depend on understanding the relationships among different elements, and reveal information about the plan and its framers that may not otherwise be readily apparent. Contextual readings show us that plan recommendations are as much a product of contemporary conditions and norms as they are of plan-specific “survey and diagnosis” (Nolen, 1936 Nolen, J. 1936. Comprehensive city plan for Dubuque, Iowa, Dubuque, IA: City Planning and Zoning Commission.  [Google Scholar]). This raises the question of whether plan quality is to be judged only in terms of skillful execution of concerns of the day or whether innovation is also important. Temporal readings reveal that plans and planning have changed dramatically over time, simultaneously confirming and questioning the conventional wisdom of planning history.

Takeaway for practice: Many planners read plans on a regular basis, and plans continue to constitute the major printed currency of the planning profession. Both plans and planning will benefit if planners become more discerning readers of the profession's principal idea vessels. Formal plan interpretation is rare, but each planner can become a better plan interpreter.

Research support: None.     

The Changing Discourse of City Plans: Rationalities of Planning in Perth, 1955–2010

1 1. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the draft of this paper. Thanks also to Garry Middle and Curtin's Planning Theory students of 2005–2006, who participated in this exercise when it was first conceived, and thereby helped us to develop the idea. Plans are among the most durable products of planning, and as such offer a revealing window into the worlds of the planners of their time. In this paper we set out a methodology for viewing those worlds using critical discourse analysis (CDA). This method focuses on four key textual features of plans: construal of substance, construction of agency, generic structure, and presentation. Together they enable the investigator to go beyond thematic discourses and uncover the institutional, political and ideological role of planning during the time period in which plans are produced. We use this method to interrogate the changing rationalities governing planning in Western Australia (WA) since the Second World War by analysing the four major city plans for Perth, covering a period from 1955 to 2010. This longitudinal analysis suggests that planning in WA mirrors concurrent trends in international planning theory, and highlights the significance of “the plan” as an object of inquiry for revealing the changing nature of planning and planners over time.     

Territorial Cohesion Discourses: Hegemonic Strategic Concepts in European Spatial Planning

The paper ¹ 1. The elaboration of this paper was supported by the European Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no 217157 (Social Polis). Further information on www.socialpolis.eu. reflects on the EU objective of territorial cohesion, exploring its role as a catalytic concept around which several (spatial and non-spatial) discourses and policy practices have been generated in European Spatial Planning. The assumption is that these discourses act as cultural constructions which define the strategic selectivity of EU institutions and strategically orientate the selective calculation of stakeholders' behaviour and their policy-making activities. The paper further explores the contents of spatial planning discourses related to the territorial cohesion objective analysing the EU official literature and highlighting general trends and main focuses. It provides an interpretative framework based on four categories: “principles”, “territorial dimensions”, “strategic policy options”, and “governance aspects”.     

Planning and the communal state: interpreting community participation in Caracas

The paper adopts an interpretive institutionalist framework [Hay (2011 Hay, Colin. 2011. “Interpreting Interpretivism Interpreting Interpretations: The New Hermeneutics of Public Administration.” Public Administration 89 (1): 167–82. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.01907.x.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]), “Interpreting Interpretivism Interpreting Interpretations: The New Hermeneutics of Public Administration.” Martin (2015 Martin, Graham. 2015. “‘Ahora tienen que escucharnos’ [now they have to listen to us]: Actors’ Understandings and Meanings of Planning Practices in Venezuela’s ‘Participatory Democracy’.” PhD thesis, Cardiff University. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/77661/. [Google Scholar]), “‘Ahora tienen que escucharnos’ [now they have to listen to us]: Actors’ Understandings and Meanings of Planning Practices in Venezuela’s ‘Participatory Democracy.” PhD Thesis, Cardiff University, to unpack participants’ involvement in communal councils (CCs) and a commune, two Venezuelan reforms seeking to incorporate citizens into planning processes. The paper focuses on how participants in La Silsa, an informal neighbourhood in Caracas, understood and enacted upon community planning opportunities provided by these new councils. Municipal and national government staff and finance heavily supported La Silsa’s emerging commune and CCs. Despite the national government’s rhetoric of ‘constructing a new socialist, communal state’, the article identifies several challenges need to be overcome to successfully shift from existing representative institutional/governmental arrangements towards more participatory repertoires. The article’s findings mirror those of other empirical studies of Latin America’s democratic innovations: citizen participation strengthens representative governmental arrangements, rather than replace them with normative alternatives.     

Cultural Landscapes and Asia: Reconciling International and Southeast Asian Regional Values

Historic(al) landscapes with their heritage values—cultural landscapes—have reached key status in the field of cultural heritage conservation and planning. International recognition of cultural landscapes was extended in 1992 to World Heritage prominence with the establishment of three categories of cultural landscapes of outstanding universal value. The term ‘cultural landscape’ is now widely circulated internationally, although its use in South-eastern and Eastern Asia (hereafter SE and E Asia) presents problems. Notwithstanding this, cultural landscapes that have evolved in SE and E Asia reflect beautifully the interaction between people and their environment not simply as a tangible cultural product but as a result of cultural process with associated intangible values. In this way, and like their Western counterparts, they are part of a dynamic “process by which identities are formed’’,1 1 Mitchell W. J. T. (1994) Landscape and Power (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), cited in Robertson, I. & Edwards, P. (Eds) (2003) Introduction, in: Studying Cultural Landscapes, p. 7 (London: Arnold). View all notes and also reflect organising philosophies and perspectives of different cultures imbued with value systems, traditional knowledge systems and abstract frameworks.2 2 See UNESCO Bangkok (2005) Hoi An Protocols for Best Conservation Practice in Asia. Professional Guidelines for Assuring and Preserving the Authenticity of Heritage Sites in the Context of the Cultures of Asia within the Framework of the Nara Document on Authenticity, Third Draft (Bangkok: UNESCO). View all notes The viewpoint of this paper is that of the need to draw attention to the cultural landscapes of SE and E Asia, to look closely at regional values and their inextricable connection to the continuing process of landscape creation, and finally to place SE and E Asian cultural landscapes in an international context.     

Crossing the roads: urban diagonals in New Zealand and the nineteenth century Anglo-colonial world

Diagonal street orientations in urban Europe were cut through the crust of the ancient city by popes, monarchs and governments to create a network of voided lines and points which injected the city with new levels of functionality and legibility for a particular regime. In the Anglo-Colonial New World, the grid was the dominant plan form with diagonals emerging only occasionally, as gestures of projected urban grandeur, geometric whimsy or vigorous boosterism. Despite inauspicious beginnings in Auckland in 1841, diagonal planning became a feature of a number of New Zealand's cities and towns. The research methodology privileges the autonomy of visual language as a critical component of the economy of knowledge1 Josef Konvitz, Cities and the Sea: Port City Planning in Early Modern Europe (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1978), xii–xiii. and focuses on primary archival graphic material from the Alexander Turnbull Library, and the National Archives in Wellington. The paper surveys the development of diagonal plans across settlements in late nineteenth century New Zealand and, with reference to examples in the USA, identifies the typologies of, and motivations behind, diagonal planning in this context.     

Tirana: a capital city transformed by the Italians

The city of Tirana was transformed into a capital city between 1923 and 1943. This transformation took place during a period when there was close collaboration between Italy and Albania and can be divided both by political history and architectural styles into two stages: first, under the monarchy of the Albanian King Zog and then the actual annexation of Albania by Italy at the time of the Second World War. The first stage, from 1920 to 1939, began with the proclamation of Tirana as the capital of Albania. It was marked by Zogu's presence on the political scene and his close ties with Italy. In 1939, with the fall of the Albanian monarchy, the country was put under Italian Fascist rule from 1939 to 1943. The paper is divided into two parts, corresponding to the two historical periods. Each one examines plans and projects for the city's transformation and the strategies put into effect to represent political power, as well as ties and legacies inherited from the past. Town planning actions are, therefore, described from three points of view: the organization of urban structures and housing policies; the relationship with the pre-existing situation; modes of urban growth and the underlying social vision. The analysis is based on a study of the urban fabric before and after the various changes, divided into the principal time frames of 1916, 1937, 1943 and 1953. The study is based mainly on original documents from the Technical Archives for Construction of Tirana.1 Archive research was carried out in connection with studies for a Nato-CNR Senior Fellowships Programme grant in 2005. Documents collected and located in the Technical Archives for Construction of Tirana, though neatly arranged in files, were yet to be classified in the archives in 2005.      

Seismic retrofit of GLD shear wall structures in Singapore

This study is concerned with the experimental investigation into the seismic behaviour and retrofitting of gravity-load-designed reinforced-concrete (RC) shear wall structures in Singapore. These structures are designed according to the British Standard (BS8110 1985 BS8110. 1985. Structural use of concrete parts 1, 2 and 3, London: British Standards Institution.  [Google Scholar]). For this purpose, 1/5 scaled models (with and without retrofitting), representing the lower critical regions of a 25-story RC shear wall structure, were tested under cyclic loadings. Test results showed that the shear wall failed at the base due to shear and that the pushover test provides a simplified representation of the cyclic test. Retrofitting the wall with GFRP (glass fibre reinforced polymer) system resulted in improved performances of up to 20% to 30% higher ultimate load capacity and displacement. The study provides an insight into the seismic behaviour of such structures and the mechanism of the proposed retrofitting scheme for improving the structural resistance to seismic loads.     

The challenges of creating actionable knowledge: an action research perspective

Academia has a critical role in developing new knowledge which construction industry practitioners need to envision, undertake and sustain successful innovation. The new knowledge produced by academia, however, often does not satisfy the needs of practitioners. This unsatisfactory state of affairs is frequently taken to be the consequence of the cultural, motivational and operational differences between the two communities. Actionable knowledge is presented as a useful concept which can fuse the expectations, contributions and outputs of academia and practitioners. Within this context, action research is argued to be an appropriate methodology to develop successful actionable knowledge. Results from an action research project are given which provide researchers and practitioners greater understanding of the key factors that shape the degree to which action research produces actionable knowledge: change focus, collaboration capabilities and systematic process. The criteria intrinsic to Mode 2 research (Gibbons et al., 1994 Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., Nowotny, H., Schwartz, S., Scott, P. and Trow, M. 1994. The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies, London: Sage.  [Google Scholar]) are demonstrated to have utility in evidencing actionable knowledge. The implication for policy is that there is a need to develop and use appropriate actionable knowledge frameworks and measures to design funding calls, and to evaluate research proposals and outputs.     

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.  ).     

Dialectics of Power: The Case of Tulihta Land-use Agreement

Case studies of planning which involve criminal corruption are rare. The article presents a Finnish court case known as “Tulihta”, concerning the breach of a land purchase contract and treachery in the preparation of the detailed plan for the land property in question, during 1989–1993. The case is analysed from the power perspective by using a framework developed by Mäntysalo and Rajaniemi (2003 Mäntysalo, R. and Rajaniemi, J. 2003. Vallan ulottuvuuksia maankäytön suunnittelussa. Synteesi, 22(3): 117–136.  [Google Scholar]). In the framework, two sets of binary characteristics of power, namely power as control and as ability, and explicit and implicit power, are combined into a horizontal-vertical field. The case analysis is aimed to test the applicability of the framework, as well as to reveal the manifold aspects of power at play in a land-use planning process.     

The distinctiveness of cities Outline of a research programme

The city constitutes a remarkable and highly contested topic within the field of social sciences. There is literally not a single human theme that could not be related and imagined within the framework of the urban: sex and crime, production and reproduction: of power, hierarchy, poverty, life course and so forth. Paradigm shifts abound: from structuralist to cultural turns and from political economy approaches to phenomenology. The main challenge, however, seems to go unanswered. It is sex in the city, poverty in the city, immigrants in the city, but what is meant by the city other than an all-purpose nostrum for societal problems? I will briefly describe this confusion as a point of departure to offer some conceptual ideas of how to constitute the city as a scientific object of knowledge. My frame of reference will be what is labelled the ‘spatial turn’ in social sciences. The two main objectives are (1) to conceptualize the city as a particular space-structuring form of sociation and (2) to identify and qualify some features of this spatial form (Berking, H., 2008 Berking, H. 2008. “Städte lassen sich an ihrem Gang erkennen wie Menschen”. In Die Eigenlogik der Städte, Edited by: Berking, H. and öw, M. L. 15–31. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.  [Google Scholar]. Städte lassen sich an ihrem Gang erkennen wie Menschen. In: H. Berking and M. Löw, eds. Die Eigenlogik der Städte. Frankfurt am Main: Campus). Since there are different and differentiated spatial forms of sociation to analytically grasp the city’s distinctive spatial form is a precondition for reconstructing its internal symbolic order as a world in its own right. The key issues will be ‘density’ or more precisely ‘densification’ and ‘doxa’, the latter referring to what is called the natural attitude to the world, the pre-reflexive or tacit knowledge of everyday life (Lebenswelt).     

Spatial Spillovers of Land Use Regulation in the United States

Evidence of spatial dependence in land use regulatory levels was first found in Brueckner (1998 Brueckner, J. (1998) Testing for strategic interaction among local governments: The case of growth controls, Journal of Urban Economics, 44, pp. 438–467.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) for California cities. Recent research has not incorporated this consideration despite the considerable consequences of the relationship. We seek to expand the empirical find ings to a current, larger and more diverse data-set for municipalities across the USA. Analyzing regulatory levels and their determinants from over 2000 municipalities, we find strong evidence of spatial dependence at the local level even after controlling for geographic and political influences. This suggests that political competition, rather than welfare maximization exclusively, may be influencing the level of regulations adopted.     

Planning for deep-rooted problems: What can we learn from aligning complex systems and wicked problems?

An earlier generation of planners turned to Rittel & Webber’s 1973 Rittel, H. W. J., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4, 155–169. doi:10.1007/BF01405730[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] conception of “wicked problems” to explain why conventional scientific approaches failed to solve problems of pluralistic urban societies. More recently, “complex systems” analysis has attracted planners as an innovative approach to understanding metropolitan dynamics and its social and environmental impacts. Given the renewed scholarly interest in wicked problems, we asked: how can planners use the complex systems approach to tackle wicked problems? We re-evaluate Rittel and Webber’s arguments through the lens of complex systems, which provide a novel way to redefine wicked problems and engage their otherwise intractable, zero-sum impasses. The complex systems framework acknowledges and builds an understanding around the factors that give rise to wicked problems: interaction, heterogeneity, feedback, neighbourhood effects, and collective interest traps. This affinity allows complex systems tools to engage wicked problems more explicitly and identify local or distributed interventions. This strategy aligns more closely with the nature of urban crises and social problems than the post-war scientific methodologies about which Rittel and Webber had grown increasingly sceptical. Despite this potential, planners have only belatedly and hesitantly engaged in complex systems analysis. The barriers are both methodological and theoretical, requiring creative, iterative problem framing. Complex systems thinking cannot “solve” or “tame” wicked problems. Instead, complex systems first characterize the nature of the wicked problems and explore plausible pathways that cannot always be anticipated and visualized without simulations. The intersection of wicked problems and complex systems presents a fertile domain to rethink our understanding of persistent social and environmental problems, to mediate the manifold conflicts over land and natural resources, and thus to restructure our planning approaches to such problems.     

Strategic Planning for Long-Term Flood Risk Management: Some Suggestions for Learning How to Make Strategy at Regional and Local Level

Often, discussions about improving long-term Flood Risk Management (FRM) refer to spatial planning as one of the most promising policy instruments (non-structural measures), especially after flood disasters like in Dresden in August 2002. However, up to now, evidence is limited that spatial planning is used intensively and systematically for long-term FRM, for instance, to reduce vulnerability in flood-prone areas by controlling developments on floodplains and providing development possibilities in non-hazardous areas (Burby et al., 2000 Burby, R. J., Deyle, R. E., Godschalk, D. R. and Olshansky, R. B. 2000. Creating hazard resilient communities through land-use planning. Natural Hazards Review, 1(2): 99–106. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]). Based on the literature on strategic spatial planning (e.g., Albrechts, 2004a Albrechts, L. 2004a. Strategic (spatial) planning re-examined. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 31: 743–758. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]; Bryson, 2004 Bryson, J. M. 2004. “Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations.”. In A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  [Google Scholar]; Healey, 2007 Healey, P. 2007. “Urban complexity and spatial strategies”. In Towards a Relational Planning for Our Times, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]) and risk management (e.g., Klinke & Renn, 2002 Klinke, A. and Renn, O. 2002. A new approach to risk evaluation and management: risk-based, precaution-based, and discourse-based strategies. Risk Analysis, 22(6): 1071–1094. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]), this paper presents normative conclusions from case studies conducted in Dresden and London on how to use strategic planning for improving long-term FRM.

The twin hazards of uncertainty and disagreement form an essential context for plannin?s ambitions of shaping the future. In practice, planners may retreat to shorter-range decisions with more limited consequences. Or they may resort to public relations devices that may gain agreement in superficial ways. Still another response is to hide behind technical analyses that are not fully shared with the public, neither revealing the true level of uncertainty nor exposing judgements to potential disagreements. Better methods are clearly desired for professional leadership regarding the future.

(Myers, 2001 Myers, D. 2001. Symposium: putting the future in planning. Introduction. JAPA: Journal of the American Planning Association, 67(4): 365–367. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]: 365)

Methodology and base cost models to determine the total benefits of preservation interventions on road sections in Switzerland

In Switzerland, it is common practice to estimate the total benefits of new roads before they have been built and of road improvement interventions before they have been performed. The guidelines with respect to standardised methodologies and models to be used have been developed (VSS 2003a VSS. 2003a. SN 641 820: Cost-benefit analysis in road traffic, Switzerland: Swiss Association of Road and Traffic Experts (VSS). Technical Committee 2: Planning and Development (in German) [Google Scholar]) and are now in use. It is not yet, however, common practice to estimate the total benefits of road preservation interventions and hence guidelines do not exist with respect to standardised methodologies and models to be used. In order to provide this information, the research package VSS 2004/710-716 was started. This paper presents the methodology and models proposed to be used to evaluate the total benefits of road preservation interventions in Switzerland based on the evaluation and synthesis of existing national and international literature on the relationships between pavement condition and benefits of road use conducted in project 714 of the research package. The use of the methodology and models are demonstrated by determining the optimal intervention strategy for a representative situation in Switzerland. The impact on the optimal intervention strategy of the consideration of multiple stakeholders is investigated.     

Gender Dynamics in the Planning Workplace

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Planners’ workplaces are diversifying with respect to gender, but office culture and policies do not always reflect such change. Our research explores the influence of gender, management, and organizational characteristics on planners’ perceptions of workplace culture and benefits. We conducted a national survey with the APA’s Women and Planning Division in 2015 Women and Planning Division, American Planning Association. (2015). Women in planning survey. Chicago, IL: American Planning Association. [Google Scholar] to assess whether planners’ perceptions regarding workplace culture and benefits differ by gender and organizational characteristics of the planning office. A limitation of the survey is the small self-selected sample of mostly female respondents. We combine feminist planning theory with workplace psychology theories of expectation states, role congruity, and representative bureaucracy, as well as transformational leadership, to explain workplace dynamics in planning agencies. Qualitative analysis shows problems with exclusive communication and equal opportunity are linked to management characteristics. To test this, we build five regression models on gender respect, exclusive communication, work–life benefits, flexibility perception, and equal opportunity. Our regression models control for gender, age, experience of respondent, and organizational characteristics. Our results indicate that gender respect, work–life benefits, and flexibility perception do not differ by gender. However, women are less likely to feel heard in their workplace (exclusive communication) or perceive equal opportunity. Workplaces with female management are more likely to show sensitivity to gender issues, support for flexible benefits, and equal opportunity for pay and advancement.

Takeaway for practice: These results suggest planners feel they can raise gender issues and access flexibility benefits without prejudice. But planning workplaces need to address problems with exclusive communication and women’s perceptions of unequal opportunities for pay and advancement. Introducing gender-inclusive planning and leadership development curriculum to planning programs would prepare future planners; and ongoing training for management may improve behavior, communication, and benefits for all genders in planning workplaces.     

Keeping It Real

Problem: It is easier than ever to reach out to the public, but as communication channels proliferate, it becomes difficult to compete for people's attention. Also, it seems as though fantasy and spectacle (even in news coverage) have the best chances of capturing an audience. Can planners create what Duncombe (2007 Duncombe, S. 2007. Dream: Re-imagining progressive politics in an age of fantasy, New York, NY: The New Press.  [Google Scholar]) calls “ethical spectacles,” where planning projects get noticed, but still gain substantive public input?

Purpose: Currently, reality television shows are the masters of “spectacle” and viewer participation. This article uses the reality TV formula to critique a televised planning event sponsored by the council of governments for the Greater Kansas City region. The model for successful reality TV offers strategies for improving televised planning processes by making these programs more dynamic and interactive. The reality TV formula includes the following: real people, uncontrolled situations, immediacy and intimacy, an emphasis on conflict in which participants balance individual and community needs, an observational style, a “confessional space,” editing to create an entertaining package, and interactive elements (voting, texting by home viewers).

Methods: The study uses genre criticism to compare and contrast the Imagine KC televised town meeting with the successful reality TV formula.

Results and conclusions: Planners can use reality TV to create “ethical spectacles” and more effectively draw attention to planning issues while creating two-way dialogues with the public. Duncombe's (2007) ethical spectacles are directly democratic, fostering community while allowing for diversity. They also take up real issues but explore alternate futures. These are all familiar to planners who have used more typical public participation techniques (e.g., surveys, charrettes) while adhering to the American Institute of Certified Planners’ code of ethics.

Takeaway for practice: While reality TV offers planners strategies for creating compelling televised public participation programming, reality TV is not without its faults. Planners should avoid the exploitative manner in which reality TV producers regard the participants, as well as its manipulative style and aesthetic of humiliation, which emphasizes drama and conflict over documentary realism and ethical considerations. If planners are going to use the medium of television, the reality TV formula provides an attractive option for those seeking to inform and interact with a large, diverse audience.

Research support: None.     

Changing Landscapes,Changing Landscape's Story

Abstract

Visual surrogates have been widely used for solving environment related issues. Researchers now have concern over the validity of surrogates. Human perception is multi-modal (Wohlwill, 1976 Wohlwill, J. F. 1976. “Environmental aesthetics: the environment as a source of affect”. In Human Behavior and Environment: Advances in Theory and Research, Edited by: Altman, I. and Wohlwill, J. F. New York: Plenum Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Ittelson, 1973 Ittelson W. Environment and Cognition Seminar Press New York 1973  [Google Scholar]) and motion is an essential aspect in the perceptual process (Gibson, 1979 Gibson, J. J. 1979. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.  [Google Scholar]). Therefore, a surrogate has to be able to represent the dynamic elements in the environment and more realistically reflect human environmental experience. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of videos and slides as visual surrogates for representing dynamic environment. The validity of the surrogates was verified by comparing subjects' perceptual responses to on-site and simulated situations. The perceptual assessments included emotional, cognitive, behavioural and preference responses. The results indicated that on-site participants' emotional responses and preferences are significantly stronger than those of video and slide viewers. In addition, on-site participants' and video viewers' cognitive and behavioural responses were significantly higher than those of slide viewers. Overall, the validity of videos and slides for representing waterscapes was not supported.