Advancing responses to climate change through improved interplay between planning theory and practice

ABSTRACT

Many planning agencies worldwide now see climate change response as unavoidable. This paper proposes that a central task for contemporary planning theory is to guide planning practice as it develops multi-dimensional responses. We examine three theoretical constructs: anticipatory governance, legitimacy and social-ecological resilience. We argue that each conceptualises challenges climate change presents to planning practice, while providing theoretically informed options for responses. Building on this, we utilize Friedmann’s [2008. “The Uses of Planning Theory: A Bibliographic Essay.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 28 (2): 247–257. doi:10.1177/0739456X08325220] tasks for planning theory as a framework to assess the utility of planning theories to guide climate change response through practice. Associated issues are discussed, including the influence of translatable planning theories and the value of importing knowledge from other disciplines. The paper concludes that more sophisticated interplay between planning theory and practice may improve planning responses to the climate change threat. The need for planning theory to translate its conceptual discoveries to the domain of practice is key.     

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.     

Brazilian city planners,American city planning? New perspectives on urban planning in Rio de Janeiro, 1930–1945

This article analyses the connections between the ideas and principles of American city planning from 1920 with those articulated by Brazilian city planners in the 1930s and implemented by the administration of the City of Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil, notably during the period of the Estado Novo [The New State] from 1937 to 1945. In a period characterized by the centralization of political power and the concentration of decision‐making in the hands of the president and the state, the City of Rio de Janeiro undertook a series of restructuring projects which utilized new forms of administration and organization. This article explores the links between urban planning in Brazil and the USA that were a notable feature of these projects. It examines particular requirements set down in city plans, city planning commissions and funding for urban activities, such as ‘excess condemnation’, by focusing upon articles and books written by four Brazilian engineers and proposals put forward by the American City Planning Institute, detailed in the proceedings of the National Conference on City Planning, in the periodical, City Planning and works by affiliated authors.     

The Migrant Metropolis and American Planning

Problem: Immigration poses various problems for U.S. cities and regions, and the roles planners should play in migrant communities are not clear.

Purpose: I consider how practitioners and scholars have understood and addressed the planning challenges and opportunities presented by the major migrations of ethnic minorities to U.S. cities and regions over the past century.

Methods: I trace discussions of planning and migration at professional planning conferences over the past century and survey planning scholarship and practice related to immigration and migrant communities in three principal eras: early 20th century southern and eastern European immigration; the mid-century internal migrations of African Americans and Puerto Ricans; and immigration in the late 20th and early 21st century.

Results and conclusions: Over the past century, immigration has had physical, economic, and social effects on people and places that are legitimate concerns of urban planners. Yet, the planning profession has had an ambiguous and often ambivalent relationship with migrant communities and has struggled to define specific roles for planners within those communities while social workers and other community and economic development practitioners played larger roles. Planning scholars have not paid as much attention to migrants' adaptation and mobility in U.S. society or their impacts on receiving communities, labor markets, housing, and congestion as have other scholars and urbanists.

Takeaway for practice: Planners have engaged with migrants in a variety of ways. Understanding this history provides context for contemporary debates about immigration and helps frame challenges and opportunities in migrant and receiving communities as planning problems.

Research support: None.     

Unimaginable Change

Problem: Planning aspires to intervene and make positive change. However, our ideas about how to create institutional reform need to be revisited because they do not fully account for the changes we have witnessed.

Purpose: This article assesses the state of our knowledge about institutions and of how we construct and change them. It identifies the major deficiencies in new institutionalism in planning theory and searches for ideas about how to influence positive institutional change.

Methods: I analyzed over 90 publications in the planning literature and other social sciences that discussed “institutions,” and identified the varying definitions and underlying epistemologies and philosophies that are at odds with each other. I then examined empirical studies of successful economic development cases in order to critically appraise the efficacy of different theories to account for the observed changes.

Results and conclusions: Disparate new institutionalism theories in the social sciences have been starting to converge by focusing on social cognition. The unimaginable, fundamental changes that have occurred in our lifetimes have not been the result of rational state planning, manipulation by political elites, or activist organizations. A society-wide process of tacit learning from peers and exemplars built new paradigms and practices, ultimately normalizing new realities.

Takeaway for practice: Planning practice that aims toward large institutional changes rather than incremental ones should incorporate the empirical lessons of contemporary history and the latest findings in cognitive science. Knowing more about the social cognition process can help planners to more effectively engage in fundamental change. Furthermore, if it retains its strengths in empirical research and multiscalar, interdisciplinary analysis, planning practice and research can make policy-relevant contributions to our understanding of social cognition change.

Research support: None.     

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.     

A Trail Across Time: American Environmental Planning From City Beautiful to Sustainability

Problem: It would be useful to identify and connect the major ideas of American environmental planning from the late 19th century up to today, to show its evolution over time and anticipate its potential future direction.

Purpose: I aim to tie together the major ideas of American environmental planning, showing how they have evolved, and suggest what additional changes will be required to progress further toward sustainability.

Methods: I review the literature, defining five time periods that are useful for understanding and analyzing environmental planning successes and shortcomings.

Results and conclusions: Environmental planning has its roots in the physical design of cities and the tension between conserving natural resources for human use and protecting wilderness. In the 1920s, regional environmental planning emerged. Federal environmental impact statements were first required in the 1970s, along with efforts to clean up and prevent pollution. A backlash against government command and control began in the 1980s, leading governments to use incentives to address environmental problems. The current era makes sustainability the goal, tying together the ideas and practices of the previous eras and blending regulation and financial incentives to address national and global environmental problems, such as climate change. To reduce carbon footprints and increase water and energy conservation in the face of significant population growth in the United States will require making environmental planning a political priority, with the goals of curbing sprawling land development, and changing lifestyles and business practices.

Takeaway for practice: Environmental planning ideas have been around for the past century and underlie the currently popular concept of planning for sustainability. However, environmental planning has been only modestly effective at influencing business practices and lifestyles. To change this, federal and local governments will have to lead by example, pursuing environmental sustainability as seriously as they pursue economic growth.

Research support: None.     

Planning Consultants and Local Planning

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Planning consultants are a vital part of the local government planning process. We explore who hires consultants, the types of tasks that they typically perform, and differences in the values of planning consultants and their clients. We conduct parallel surveys of planning consultants and local government officials, and find that the use of consultants is widespread: They are hired primarily to reduce the costs of maintaining in-house planning staff and to provide as-needed technical expertise. Both planning officials and consultants agree on the priority given to well–accepted planning principles, even though each group thinks they hold planning principles in higher esteem than the other. Yet, we find that the actual differences between the self-professed values of the two groups are negligible.

Takeaway for practice: This study suggests that both consultants and their clients believe that the advantages of hiring consultants, including supplementing in-house staff, providing workforce flexibility, and offering technical expertise, outweigh the disadvantages of possibly higher costs and lack of local knowledge. The study provides reasons for optimism that outsourcing planning work does not change the underlying planning values of the agencies employing the consultants, or the goals and objectives of the planning work.

Research support: Wayne State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.     

Market Planning,Market Planners,and Planned Markets

Abstract

From the Review Editor

Planning Theory Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning, Volume 1 Bruce Stiftel and Vanessa Watson, editors. Routledge, New York, 2004. 384 pages. $130.

Methods, Information Systems, and Mapping Beyond Benefit Cost Analysis: Accounting for Non-Market Values in Planning Evaluation Donald Miller and Domenico Patassini, editors. Ashgate, Hampshire, England, 2005. 338 pages. $99.95.

Planning and Urban Design Standards American Planning Association. John &; Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2006. 736 pages. $200.

Land Use, Zoning, Growth Management, Planning Law Economics and Contemporary Land Use Policy: Development and Conservation at the Rural-Urban Fringe Robert J. Johnston and Stephen K. Swallow, editors. Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, 2006. 288 pages. $70, $36.95 (paperback).

Community Development and Neighborhood Planning Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter, editors. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2006. 416 pages. $34.95 (paperback).

New Urbanism and American Planning: The Conflict of Cultures Emily Talen. Routledge, New York, 2005. 328 pages. $147, $44 (paperback).

Tomorrow's Cities, Tomorrow's Suburbs William H. Lucy and David L. Phillips. American Planning Association, Chicago, 2006. 354 pages. $55.95 (paperback).

Revitalizing the City: Strategies to Contain Sprawl and Revive the Core Fritz W. Wagner, Timothy E. Joder, Anthony J. Mumphrey, Jr., Krishna M. Akundi, and Alan F. J. Artibise, editors. M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 2005. 360 pages. $94.95, $39.95 (paperback).

Youth Crime and Youth Culture in the Inner City Bill Sanders. Routledge, New York, 2004. 256 pages. $122.50.

Transportation Street Smart: Competition, Entrepreneurship, and the Future of Roads Gabriel Roth, editor. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ, 2006. 581 pages. $59.95, $29.95 (paperback).

Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources City and Environment Christopher G. Boone and Ali Modarres. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2006. 240 pages. $76.50, $25.95 (paperback).

International Planning and Development German Annual of Spatial Research and Policy: Restructuring Eastern Germany Sebastian Lentz, editor. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2007. 190 pages. $89.95.

Return to the Center: Culture, Public Space, and City-Building in a Global Era Lawrence A. Herzog. University of Texas Press, Austin, 2006. 299 pages. $55, $24.95 (paperback).

Planning and Urban History The New Suburban History Kevin M. Kruse and Thomas J. Sugrue, editors. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2006. 300 pages. $60, $24 (paperback).     

The Food System

Shelley Jordon describes her artwork as celebrating “the power and the beauty of domestic spaces and objects…culled from daily life.” Food is among the most basic of daily human needs, yet what is most basic often gets overlooked. Alpenrose, her image of a breakfast table, brings this human need to the fore, as authors Ka-meshwari Pothukucki and Jerome L. Kaufman argue that food systems need a place among the concerns of planners.

The artist, who is an associate professor of art at Oregon State University, resides in Portland, Oregon. Her works can be found in galleries and private collections throughout the West Coast.

Planning lays claim to being comprehensive, future-oriented, and public-interest driven, and of wanting to enhance the livability of communities. It is concerned with community systems—such as land use, housing, transportation, the environment, and the econ-omy—and their interconnections. The food system, however, is notable by its absence from most planning practice, research, and education. We present evidence for the limited presence of the food system in planning's list of concerns by scanning leading journals, texts, and classic writings, and by reporting on a survey of 22 U.S. city planning agencies. We analyze this low level of attention and discuss reasons and ideas for planning involvement to strengthen community food systems.¹     

A Broader Context for Land Use and Travel Behavior,and a Research Agenda

Problem: Planning studies of land use and travel behavior focus on regression analysis of travel as a function of traveler demographics and land use near study subjects’ residences. Methodological debates have tended to focus almost exclusively on the possibility that persons choose their residence based on how they wish to travel. This longer view steps back from the confines of the regression-based literature to explain the historical roots, methods, and results of the literature, and to assess how the land use–travel literature must be transformed to be more relevant to planning.

Purpose: There are many summaries and meta-analyses of the impact of land use on travel. The goal here is not to understand how we might better specify a regression or summarize the results of past studies, but rather to explain how a literature that has become fundamental to planning scholarship is failing to be sufficiently planning focused. At the same time, this longer view describes how the literature can be transformed to address the planning challenges of today and tomorrow.

Methods: This longer view summarizes over 100 articles, covering transportation methods from the dawn of the interstate highway era to topics that include program evaluation, land development, and cognitive aspects of travel behavior. The primary focus is on the land use and travel literature, but the review and analysis is broad ranging and places the literature and its challenges within the broader context of recent developments in the social sciences, planning, policy, and electronic data collection.

Results and conclusions: This longer view elucidates three research frontiers that will be necessary to move the land use–travel literature forward. First, behavioral models of land use and travel must expand to consider how land is developed, how places are planned, and how cities are built. Second, the land use–travel literature should build a robust retrospective program evaluation tradition, which is currently almost completely absent in a scholarly field dominated by cross-sectional hypothesis tests and forecasting models. Third, economic social welfare analysis must be carefully researched, including questions of preferences for neighborhood types and whether such preferences are fixed or malleable.

Takeaway for practice: Planning is about city building, and the literature and practice on land use and travel behavior should adapt to better support city building. This requires both a serious commitment to social science research and planning's characteristically broad view of context, problem, and place. In an era of climate change, and amidst debates about sustainability, the land use–travel literature must more aggressively examine the process of plans and place making, evaluate the increasingly innovative transportation policies being implemented at the local level, and develop methods that allow more informed discussion about the costs and benefits of transportation policies.

Research support: None.     

Barriers to GIS Use in Planning

Problem: Despite the widespread availability of geographic information systems (GIS) in local government, there is some evidence that the potential of GIS as a planning tool is not being fully exploited. While obstacles to GIS implementation in local government have been investigated, most of these investigations are either dated or do not focus on planning applications.

Purpose: We aim to add to the limited literature on the current barriers hindering GIS use in public planning agencies. We also offer some insights into how to mitigate these barriers and help planning agencies move beyond using GIS simply for routine tasks of data access and mapmaking.

Methods: We analyzed responses to a 2007 web-based survey of 265 practitioners in Wisconsin's public planning agencies and follow-up interviews with 20 practitioners we conducted in 2008.

Results and conclusions: Planning departments still face a range of technological, organizational, and institutional barriers in using GIS. Training, funding, and data issues appear to be the most significant barriers preventing greater use of GIS for planning purposes, suggesting that organizational and institutional issues are more pertinent than technological barriers. Our literature review indicates that the barriers to GIS use in local government are similar to those of the past, but not identical. Furthermore, our observations indicate that, in general, practitioners are not aware of the full potential of GIS and planning support systems (PSS).

Takeaway for practice: Increased funding alone is not likely to move a planning agency beyond routine applications of GIS. Improved access to training that is geared toward the planning process and planning applications may help alleviate many barriers planners face in using GIS in general and in incorporating more sophisticated GIS functions in their work.

Research support: This work was supported in part by the Consortium for Rural Geospatial Innovations, funded by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and in part by the University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the University of Wisconsin–Extension.     

Book Reviews and Lists

Burdell, Edwin Sharp. A method of investigating the administration of the zoning ordinance in Columbus, Ohio, 1923-31. Reprinted from Abstracts of Doctors' Dissertations, No. 17, The Ohio State University Press, 1935; pp. 33-49.

A Hundred New 'Towns for Britain: a scheme of national reconstruction proposed by J47485; rev. and enlarged ed. London, Simpkin Marshall, Ltd., Nov. 1934. illus. Price 3s.6d.

James, Harlean, Ed. American planning and civic annual: a record of recent civic advance, including the Proceedings of the Conference on City, Regional, State, and National Planning, 1935. Washington, American Planning and Civic Association, Inc., 1935. 356p. illus, plans. Price $3.00.

Lambie, Morris B., Ed. Training for the public service: the report and recommendations of a conference sponsored by Public Administration Clearing House. Chicago, Public administration Service, 1935. 49p. (Publication no. 49.) Price 50 cents.

Malcher, Fritz. The steadyflow traffic system. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1935. 91p. illus., diagrs. (Harvard City Planning Studies, Vol. IX.) Price $1.00.

Merrill, Harold, and others, Comps. Some re-cent references (since 1928) on national and state planning in the United States, compiled by Harold Merrill, James T. Rubey, and William H. Heers. Washington, National Resources Committee, Oct. 1935. 24p. (U.S. Geological Survey Library, Bibliographical List No. 5.) Mimeographed.

U.S. National Resources Board. State planning: a review of activities and progress, June 1935. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1935. 310p. maps, plans, charts, tables. Price 75 cents (paper cover).

U. S. National Resources Committee. Regional factors in national planning and development. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, Dec. 1935. 223p. illus., maps, charts.     

Dutch Green Planning More Reality than Fiction

Atlanta: Race, Class and Urban Expansion Larry Keating. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2001. 256 pages. $69.50, $22.95 (paperback).

Race, Neighborhoods, and Community Power: Buffalo Politics, 1934–1997 Neil Kraus. State University of New York Press, Albany, 2000. 294 pages. $59.50, $19.19 (paperback).

Urban Inequality: Evidence from Four Cities Alice O'Connor, Chris Tilly, and Lawrence D. Bobo, editors. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 2001. 559 pages. $36.

The Boston Renaissance: Race, Space, and Economic Change in an American Metropolis Barry Bluestone and Mary Huff Stevenson. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 2000. 461 pages. $39.95.

Prismatic Metropolis: Inequality in Los Angeles Lawrence D. Bobo, Melvin L. Oliver, James H. Johnson, Jr., and Abel Valenzuela, Jr., editors. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 2000. 611 pages. $39.95.

Detroit Divided Reynolds Farley, Sheldon Danziger, and Harry J. Holzer. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 2000. 309 pages. $27.95.

The Atlanta Paradox David L. Sjoquist, editor. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 2000. 300 pages. $27.95.

Transforming New Orleans and Its Environs: Centuries of Change Craig E. Colten, editor. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2000. 265 pages. $49, $19.95 (paperback).

Color and Money: Politics and Prospects for Community Reinvestment in Urban America Gregory D. Squires and Sally O'Connor. State University of New York Press, Albany, 2001. 202 pages. $19.95 (paperback).

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck. North Point Press, New York, 2000. 290 pages. $30, $18 (paperback).

How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken Alex Marshall. University of Texas Press, Austin, 2000. 243 pages. $24.95 (paperback).

Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened Rosalyn Baxandall and Elizabeth Ewen. Basic Books, New York, 2000. 298 pages. $27.50.

Travel by Design: The Influence of Urban Form on Travel Marlon Boarnet and Randall Crane. Oxford University Press, New York, 2001. 224 pages. $60.

SafeScape: Creating Safer, More Livable Communities through Planning and Design Al Zelinka and Dean Brennan. Planners Press, American Planning Association, Chicago, 2001. 285 pages. $75.

What Government Can Do: Dealing with Poverty and Inequality Benjamin I. Page and James Roy Simmons. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2000. 409 pages. $29.

Toward Sustainable Communities: Transition and Transformation in Environmental Policy Daniel A. Mazmanian and Michael E. Kraft, editors. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999. 323 pages. $25 (paperback).

Constructing Sustainable Development Neil E. Harrison. State University of New York Press, Albany, 2000. 174 pages. $54.50, $17.95 (paperback).

Safeguarding Our Common Future: Rethinking Sustainable Development Ingrid Leman Stefanovic, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2000. 234 pages. $65.50, $21.95 (paperback).

Bidding for Business: The Efficacy of Local Economic Development Incentives in a Metropolitan Area John E. Anderson and Robert W. Wassmer, W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, MI, 2000. 244 pages. $35, $17 (paperback).

Captives of the Cold War Economy: The Struggle for Defense Conversion in American Communities John J. Accordino. Praeger, Westport, CT, 2000. 221 pages. $68.

Consensus Planning: The Relevance of Communicative Planning Theory in Dutch Infrastructure Development Johan Woltjer. Ashgate Press, Aldershot, UK, 2000. 294 pages. $74.95.

Urban Planning in a Changing World: The Twentieth Century Experience Robert Freestone, editor. E &; FN Spon, New York, 2000. 293 pages. $74.99.

The American Statehouse: Interpreting Democracy's Temples Charles T. Goodsell. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 2001. 240 pages. $35.

Urban Planning, Housing and Spatial Structures in Sub-Saharan Africa: Nature, Impact and Development Implications of Exogenous Forces Ambe J. Njoh. Ashgate, Brookfield, VT, 1999. 270 pages. $69.95.

Neighborhood Poverty, Volume I: Context and Consequences for Children Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Greg J. Duncan, and J. Lawrence Abner, editors. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 2000. 334 pages. $16.95 (paperback).

Neighborhood Poverty, Volume II: Policy Implications in Studying Neighborhoods Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Greg J. Duncan, and J. Lawrence Aber, editors. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 2000. 238 pages. $13.95 (paperback).

Urban Planning and Development Applications of GIS Easa Said and Yupo Chan, editors. The American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA, 2000. 283 pages. $39.

Homes and Hands: Community Land Trusts in Action Deborah Chasnoff and Helen S. Cohen, directors. Women's Educational Media, producer. New Day Films, 1995. 36 minutes. $125.     

Planning history: Recent developments in Britain

This paper is a ‘state of the art’ review of planning history in Britain. It outlines some of the main reasons for the expansion of the field of study towards the end of the 1960s. It then describes and accounts for planning history achievements since that time. It concludes with a balance sheet of successes and opportunities not yet grasped, and an assessment of progress to date.

Over the last 20 years there has been a marked upsurge of interest in the historical development of the industrial and post‐industrial city from the point of view of the planning and conscious regulation of the built environment. The field of study, which has attracted the term ‘planning history’, represents a fresh, additional perspective on urban affairs, to go alongside the insights gained from art history, urban history, historical geography, industrial archaeology, construction history and the study of urban morphology. Significant academic results have ensued in terms of research and publications, and there have been important consequences for the profession of town planning, which has benefited from a new historical depth and analytical judgement over processes of environmental change.

The planning history movement—we must speak of it in those words—is now thoroughly international; in Britain at least it has been captured by the Planning History Group, a world‐wide network of scholars established in 1974. It publishes its own in‐house Bulletin, now called Planning History, and it organizes International Conferences. Operating also from Britain is the publication of an international journal Planning Perspectives. The Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) is a vigorous newcomer in the USA, building on the earlier work of the American Planning History Group.

This paper seeks to describe and account for the achievements in British planning history over two decades: the lines of development and where they have taken us in our understanding of (particularly) urban change. By way of introduction it is necessary to set the scene and outline some of the reasons for the emergence of the new field of study at the end of the 1960s. To conclude, we may consider some of the gains for scholarship arising from this new academic concern.     

Rural issues in urban planning: current trends and reflections

ABSTRACT

While planning has always had an urban emphasis it has also always been concerned with urban–rural linkages and the interactions between urban and rural as well as with the people, economy, and environment of rural places. This symposium issue of International Planning Studies presents recent scholarship on rural planning from around the world.     

The Effect of Mandated Planning on Plan Quality

Problem: What is a “good plan”? Among their key goals, plans aim to communicate, influence and engage. Persuasiveness (the ability to engage and motivate) is, therefore, an essential plan quality. Unfortunately, all too many comprehensive plans lack this important quality. In addition, state planning mandates intended to strengthen planning can instead worsen this shortcoming.

Purpose: To develop a methodology to measure and compare the communicative and persuasive qualities of plans in states with and without planning mandates.

Methods: A specially designed protocol was developed to measure the communicative and persuasive qualities of comprehensive plans. Plans of 20 municipalities in states with planning mandates were compared with those of 20 municipalities in states without planning mandates. Statistical analyses of the results were conducted using the Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney (U) test and simple t tests.

Results and conclusions: Requiring local governments to prepare plans did not result in better plans—at least as measured by a protocol tailored specifically to assess the persuasiveness and communicative quality of plans. Plans prepared in mandate states were much more rigid and standardized than those prepared in nonmandate states. Nonmandated plans also scored much higher in terms of their narrative and storytelling qualities than mandated plans. Private consultant involvement in plan making significantly increased the communicative and persuasive qualities of plans.

Takeaway for practice: Plans in all 40 municipalities fell far short of the ideal communicative and persuasive qualities set forth in the protocol. The deficiency was greatest in states with planning mandates. The involvement of private consultants had a positive impact on plan quality, while the provision of state funding for planning did not.

Research support: None.     

Longer View: Planning for the Rebuilding of New Orleans

Problem: Catastrophic disasters like Hurricane Katrina disrupt urban systems, economies, and lives, and pose huge problems for local governments and planners trying to organize and finance reconstruction as quickly and effectively as possible.

Purpose: This article aims to summarize the key planning challenges New Orleans faced following the August 29, 2005 flooding in order to identify lessons planners can apply following future disasters.

Methods: In this case study we sought to observe key decisions about the recovery as they unfolded. Collectively, we spent months in New Orleans in 2005, 2006, and 2007, and interviewed leaders of all the planning efforts to date. One of us played a lead role in the design and execution of the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP), and all observed and/or participated in neighborhood-level planning activities.

Results and conclusions: We agree with previous findings on post-disaster recovery, confirming the importance of previous plans, citizen involvement, information infrastructure, and external resources. We also observe that the recovery of New Orleans might have proceeded more effectively in spite of the inherent challenges in post-Katrina New Orleans. Many local difficulties are a result of the slow flow of federal reconstruction funding. Despite this, the city administration also could have taken a more active leadership role in planning and information management earlier; the city's Office of Recovery Management has since improved this. On the positive side, the Louisiana Recovery Authority has been a model worth emulating by other states.

Takeaway for practice: Planning can inform actions as both proceed simultaneously. Had New Orleans planners not felt so compelled to complete plans quickly, they might have been more effective at providing reasoned analysis over time to support community actions and engaging a broader public in resolving difficult questions of restoration versus betterment. A center for collecting and distributing data and news would have better informed all parties; this remains an important need.

Research support: We received support from the Mid-America Earthquake Center, the Public Entity Risk Institute, and the New Orleans Community Support Foundation.     

The Unexamined Staff Report: Results From an Evaluation of a National Sample

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Municipal planners write staff reports reviewing development applications to submit to planning and zoning commissions. Staff reports are probably planners' most common, but least studied, work products. A small literature provides -guidance on writing better staff reports, but questions remain: What makes a quality staff report; what are their contents; and what is the state of today's staff reports? We summarize the literature on writing staff reports and develop a tool to assess the content of a national sample of staff reports. We analyze whether staff reports include traditional and modern elements. We find that many staff reports provide traditional basic information, but do not summarize that information or use modern formatting tools to make text more comprehensible. Most staff reports reference the comprehensive plan but rarely cite the future land use map or plans of adjacent jurisdictions. Many mention checking traditional public facilities like roads, but rarely list parks or pedestrian or cycling facilities. Most do not include maps, arguments for recommendations, or references to soliciting public input.

Takeaway for practice: Planning departments can improve staff reports through simple changes in report organization and graphics. Planners can use this assessment tool to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their staff reports, and scholars can use this approach to analyze how staff reports affect the quality of decision making.