Peter Marris (1927–2007): Planning in an International Context

Spatial planners and policy makers currently struggle to understand the peri-urban area, with its mixture of land uses and its transitional status between the urban and the rural. This paper presents the concept of transition, derived from complexity science, to allow planners to analyse peri-urban development in terms of a number of interacting processes, some induced, some evolving autonomously. Drawing on four case studies of European urban regions, the research finds that many of the dynamic processes underlying peri-urban development are not susceptible to the influence of planning agencies. This should enable planners to develop a more adaptive approach in the future, identifying areas where productive and case-specific interventions can be made.     

The ‘Infrastructure Turn’ in Australian Metropolitan Spatial Planning

This paper argues that a recent resurgence in Australian spatial planning has been superseded by a resort to infrastructure to address urban problems. The paper uses case studies of the Melbourne and South East Queensland (Brisbane) metropolitan regions to chart the renewal of new spatial planning, after a period of neglect. This paper then shows this spatial planning renewal has given way to a new emphasis on urban infrastructure planning as the primary mode of intervention in these cities. The infrastructure turn raises important questions about the spatial planning and infrastructure of cities within a new era of global strategic challenges.     

Planning Legislation: 1966–1967

This review continues the coverage of previous legislative reviews in 1964 and 1966. Major planning legislation, both state and federal, for the past two years is described render general categories. Significant new legislative developments are identified, and specific acts are cited. Among the highlights included are Section 204 of the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966, a wide variety of new state planning and urban development acts, and recent activities in the field of metropolitan councils of government.     

A Commonwealth Government Role in Planning: Advocacy And Resistance 1939–52

One of the most celebrated episodes in the history of planning ideas at the national level in Australia was the work of the Commonwealth Housing Commission (CHC) in the mid 1940s. Authors such as Clem Lloyd, Pat Troy and Leonie Sandercock have contrasted the 'wide horizons' and 'great plans' of the Commission with the demise of any role in urban planning on the part of the commonwealth government from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. These authors explain this outcome in terms of the general political swing to the right in the late 1940s. This account looks at three areas of CHC recommendations-community facilities; town planning and regional planning-and attributes the demise of these Commission recommendations to a set of bureaucratic and political factors taking effect as early as 1944–45.     

Sustainable Development,Rational Planning–Annual National Planning Conference 2017 Successfully Held in Dongguan

<正>The Annual National Planning Conference 2017(shortened as the Conference hereinafter)was held in Dongguan from Nov.18to 20.The theme of the Conference was"Sustainable Development,Rational Planning,"which aims to call on planners to better study and act on the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and fundamentally promote reform and innovation of the plan-     

Dynamics of Housing Mobility in Australian Metropolitan Areas, 2001–2010: A Longitudinal Study

A lack of understanding of the dynamics of housing mobility and its difference across the major cities in Australia can have significant policy ramifications. In particular, a spatial mismatch in the demand and supply of higher density housing will arise if planning for resource allocations continues to be based on urban density targets without a complete understanding of the dynamics of housing mobility patterns. Therefore through the application of a unique 3-fold longitudinal study this paper examines the housing mobility patterns over time by measuring changes in housing characteristics of housing tenure, dwelling type and location using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA). It was found that the most typical transition to a higher dwelling density in Australia is from a detached house to multi-storeyed units under 3 storeys. Downsizing moves for retirees are most frequent and a decrease in household income is closely related to downsizing. Also notable is the significantly higher level of downsizing moves found in Melbourne when compared to other cities over the past decade.     

60 Years of Planning:Achievements and Challenges–Annual Conference of China City Planning 2016 Successfully Held in Shenyang

正The Annual Conference of China City Planning 2016(shortened as the Conference hereinafter)was held from Sept.24 to 27 in Shenyang.The theme of the Conference was"60 Years of Planning:Achievements and Challenges."The conference was jointly sponsored by the Urban Planning Society of China(shortened as UPSC hereinafter)and the Shenyang Municipal People’s Government,co-organized by the     

Interpretations: “New Ideas in Planning”

A critical planning task is recognizing and addressing uncertainty. Actual problems vary in uncertainty over means and ends. If people agree on what they want and how to achieve it, then certainty prevails and planning is rational application of knowledge. If they agree on what they want but do not know how to achieve it, then planning becomes a learning process; if they do not agree on what they want but do know how to achieve alternatives, then planning becomes a bargaining process; if they agree on neither means nor ends, then planning becomes part of the search for order in chaos. Each prototype situation suggests a particular range of planning styles. Planners should tailor their styles to problem conditions. By acting contingently they can use reason to cope with uncertainty.     

Urban sprawl in the Mediterranean?: Patterns of growth and change in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region 1993–2000

Debates on the urban form have become strongly polarized between the advocates and opponents of the compact and of the dispersed or “sprawled” city. In this paper we argue that this may be the result of an excessive concentration on the study of the American experience and the neglect of other urban contexts, and examine the recent process of urban growth against the background of urban compactness and extreme densification represented by the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (BMR). The comparison of two detailed land-cover maps of 1993 and 2000 shows a progressive transformation in the traditional urban character of the region. Lower urban densities, high losses of non-urban land covers, depopulation of the metropolitan inner core, an increasing importance of single housing or the expansion of transportation infrastructures confirm the generalization of the dispersed urban model. However, the presence of numerous medium sized towns has also proved to be a deterrent of excessive dispersion. In conclusion, polycentric metropolitan areas such as the BMR may be more adjusted to absorb the negative effects of dispersion than monocentric areas.     

Social Science Advances and Planning Applications: 1900–1965

This article offers a survey of the impact of the social sciences on urban planning between 1900 and 1965. In so doing, the meaning of “social science advance” is considered, including criticisms of positivistic approaches. A recent compendium of social science advances is presented and modified slightly. Eighty-two advances are considered, more than half of which have had some application to urban and regional planning. The process of incorporating these advances into the milieu of urban planning theory and practice is shown to have hit full stride after 1956, with sustained and increasing impact up to 1965. The greatest impact on planning during this period appears to have been in augmenting the degree of empiricism and quantification in planning method. The paper sets the stage for a subsequent, more intensive review of the literature in this area in the period after 1965.     

Planning allocations and the stubborn north–south divide in Tel Aviv–Jaffa

Several master plans have attempted to lessen the divide between the poor southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv–Jaffa and the well-off central and northern ones. We compared the planning visions, the main policies and detailed schemes, financing methods, and actual implementation efforts. We found that each planning generation has promoted different development locations, regulations, and allocation methods, and yet implementation has generally been much more durable and with superior socio-spatial impacts in the more affluent areas. To analyze and explain these findings we studied planning allocations in the light of ideas of distributive justice and of urban regime practice. We found that while the welfare state's direct allocation of housing and infrastructure for communities and individuals was not really equal, the later indirect allocations by neoliberal regimes mainly stimulated market forces in the more affluent or attractive areas. We also found that while planning allocation varied in different neighborhoods, the pace and order of planning and realization became crucial elements in urban inequality.     

Infrastructure Planning: in a State of Panic?

Abstract

Infrastructure is routinely framed in contemporary urban policy as a vehicle to grow the economy through the creation of jobs. In periods of economic downturn and when ongoing fiscal uncertainty ensues, governments may look to the construction and maintenance of social and public infrastructure such as social housing and public transport. Cities and communities that have endured infrastructure deficits in the past may become the beneficiaries of adjusted national and state-level policy to support economic prosperity through expedient infrastructure implementation programs. Yet in the post-GFC policy environment urban infrastructure has recentred the role of infrastructure in driving urban economic recovery in terms of economic prosperity. Drawing from the state of exception literature, I call on the notion of urgency to explore infrastructure planning as it manifests at the juncture between strategic planning and implementation. This paper will contribute to the critical urban planning literature by examining how infrastructure prioritisation and implementation is shaped through a characterisation of urgency which subverts the relationship between urban infrastructure planning, implementation and planning process.     

Planning law,power, and practice: Haussmann in Paris (1853–1870)

The transformation of Paris by Haussmann (1853–1870) is presented as a classic case of state-led modernization. What most accounts do not take into consideration is that Haussmann faced formidable opposition from property owners in his attempts to realize the emperor's ambitions for Paris, an opposition that centred on competing interpretations and uses of planning law. Based on heretofore unstudied archival material, this paper traces Haussmann's attempts to establish his (at times) creative use of planning law as legitimate in a context where planning was firmly in the hands of property owners. Haussmann's strategic use of the law, or planning practice, was able to lay bare the fact that planning law has no legitimacy in itself – only particular uses of the law can gain or lose legitimacy. Planning power can thus be defined as the possession of legitimacy in the use of planning law; and since the legal framework is a site of contest rather than a source of legitimacy, planning power depends on external legitimation. In the Haussmann case it is clear that state backing was central, even though (implicit) early support from the Parisian population cannot be ruled out until more research has been conducted.     

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.     

Spatial Planning Reform in a Post-Pandemic Age:Has Anything Really Changed?Reflections from an English Perspective

1.Introduction From the outside looking in,the English planning system is often viewed with a degree of curiosity and with false perceptions of stabil-ity.In tr...     

Planning of public housing in modern Tianjin (1928–1945)

European, American, and Japanese debates on public housing served as models for those in modern China, and Chinese scholars and professionals, with the support of the KMT (Kuomintang), developed public housing as a sign of innovation in both societal reform and building typology. Using the under-researched case of Tianjin's public housing during the so-called Nanjing Decade (1928–1937) and then again during the Japanese Occupation (1937–1945) as case studies, the paper first explores how journals, books, and foreign-trained Chinese scholars introduced the concept of public housing to China. It then examines five public housing projects that municipal authorities developed for Tianjin, two in the Nanjing Decade and three during the Japanese Occupation. Analysing the sites, architectural designs, and management rules of these projects, the paper argues that the projects in the Nanjing Decade (both planned and realized) mostly targeted poor families, serving to simultaneously solve housing problems, reform society, and police the poor; while the projects during the Japanese Occupation benefited high-income people or the Japanese, and did not play a role in the relief of the local poor, who suffered most from the housing shortage.     

‘Unfinished Business’: Neoliberal Planning Reform in Australia

Abstract

This paper reviews the recent and contemporary neoliberal reform agendas that have sought a reduced role for planning in Australia. Our aim is to describe these reform paths and to theorise their broader implications for urban governance in Australia. Our analysis focuses on two initiatives: first, the broad reform framework embodied in National Competition Policy that is now affecting planning regulation at the state level; and second, the new vision for a standardised development control system that has been put forward by the Property Council of Australia. As we will show, neoliberal reforms have the potential both to reduce the possibility for spatial regulation and also to undermine the other recent reform agendas that have sought a positive transformation of planning; namely, community democratic movements and environmentalism.