Progress in Planning最新文献

In this paper we draw on the findings of a mixed methods research project that has examined the production, regulation, and delivery of housing in London. Our aim is to develop fresh insights into the growing mobilisation of numbers and targets in contemporary planning systems. More specifically, we bring two fields of literature into conversation. First, drawing on recent contributions from Pike et al. (2019) we develop their notion of ‘city statecraft or the art of city government and management of state affairs and relations (p.79). We discuss how and why their framing of contemporary urban governance captures current trends in contemporary cities, including: the financialisation of housing and infrastructure; the rolling-out of delivery-focused public private partnerships; and the broader political projects that underpin planning priorities. The paper combines these insights with wider writings in urban studies on virtualism or the analysis of theories and governmental practices that seek to make the world conform to pre-existing ideas, rather than describing and explaining its formation. We argue that target-based forms of governance represent the implementation of a virtual statecraft in which the material realities of actual places become simulated worlds, ripe for calculation and re-making. We show, through in-depth research on housing regulation and investment/development trends in London, the ways in which virtual forms of statecraft are developed and implemented and with what effects on the material outcomes of urban development processes. The findings are of comparative significance as planning systems across Europe and beyond are becoming increasingly focused on market-oriented oriented forms of planning in an effort to boost the production of housing and to deliver social policy outcomes.

The public interest has traditionally been a key reason for the legitimacy of planning. Although planning theory and practice are always shaped by a particular understanding of the public interest, it is a concept that is decidedly hard to define. Over the past century, from the beginning of modern planning to the present, various theoretical traditions of thinking about the public interest have emerged. In the course of this debate, the public interest as the normative content of planning has lost significance to the point of meaningless concepts. Many attempts have been made to revive the concept, but no studies have yet been conducted to explore and describe schools of thought in planning related to the public interest. In this study, using a meta-theory approach and emphasizing the similarities of previous classifications, we present comprehensive coalitions of the conceptions of public interest in planning as distinct schools of thought. In order to organize in a complex and diverse body of literature, we link these conceptions of public interest with relevant planning theories. In order to understand the evolution of these schools of thought, we traced their origin using a genealogical approach. As a result of applying this meta-theory approach, we arrive at a framework that consists of five different schools of thought. We distinguish utilitarian, justice-oriented, communicative, and elitist schools of thought in the mainstream of planning thought and one emerging school in the global south. Identifying these schools of thought contributes, on the one hand, to a clear understanding of how the public interest is defined and applied in planning theory and, on the other hand, helps theorists and professionals to expand the available knowledge base to understand the interwoven concepts of the public interest and planning.

In the past few years, calls for innovative urban projects (CIUPs) have become the most mediatized symbol of the ongoing transformations within the public-led French urban development system. In the name of urban innovation, CIUP is a policy instrument that brings together, early in the design phase of urban development projects, extended teams of real estate developers and other actors who usually intervene downstream in the development process. We explore these calls as a form of real estate led start-up urbanism and analyse its modalities in Greater Paris, with the first edition of the Inventing the Greater Paris Metropolis (IGPM) call as a case study. We begin by tracing the genealogy of CIUPs and their particular articulation of urban innovation and urban development principles. In the remainder of the paper, we explore the implications of such urban innovation and spatial planning hybrids, by honing in on the relational work of real estate developers, i.e. the production of social relationships and networks that enables real estate developers adherence to the political ambitions during the bidding process. After establishing their centrality in the social networks defined by IGPM, we explore the apparent paradox between projects that are perceived as ordinary by call organizers and a visible effervescence of the urban planning milieu, including recruitment practices within real estate development firms, the emergence of small operators embodying imaginaries of urban innovation and the growing role of consultancies in supporting developers in responding to public authorities’ ambitions. In the final empirical section of the paper, we focus on real estate developers’ innovation strategies as a way of understanding the apparent contradiction between project content and the changing organizational landscape of the urban development milieu. In the concluding section, we bring these elements together through a discussion of the policy outputs and outcomes of CIUPs in general, and of IGPM in particular.

This article presents the results of a research project on the design of a particular value capture instrument in the form of a development obligation. This has been modelled to capture part of the betterment engendered by tourism-oriented plans. The article subsequently explores the potential of applying this levy in the interest of social goals, thus complementing traditional municipal funding sources. The concept is applied to the Urban Zoning Plan of the Planning Unit 11 of the municipality of Lagoa, located in the Algarve, Portugal. It tries to overcome several gaps and contradictions identified in the literature and in the planning practices of different value capture instruments in diversified urban contexts. These shortcomings refer to: (i) uncertainties as to why the land value rises; (ii) undefined thresholds between betterment and profit; (iii) the classification of value capture whether as a tax or as an instrument of wealth redistribution; (iv) the application of the captured value; (v) dilemmas between private property rights and citizens’ rights over betterments due to public decisions; (vi) public regulation versus free market operation; (vii) responsibilities, benefits and obligations of private individuals in urban development; and (viii) the design, execution as well as the risks of capture instruments. This adds to the specific requirements enforced by the Portuguese Land Act regarding the economic and financial sustainability of urban development.

This instrument is based on objective, reliable, and comparable data. This data is organised into a management information system which supports a flexible and continually updatable model to assess betterments engendered by public decisions. This model is easily generalizable to other urban contexts.

Finally, the potential of the proposed instrument to achieve social goals is assessed against the background of factors such as the fiscal challenges currently faced by municipalities, the rising importance of increasingly diversified stakeholders and their awareness of issues of sustainability in urban development.

Urban greenery substantially influences the distribution of solar energy in urban areas and thus plays an irreplaceable role in creating local climate. This paper introduces the principles of urban vegetation functioning as a perfect air conditioning system that efficiently cools the environment and balances temperatures through evapotranspiration. It is based on the basic physics of energy transformation and known physiological processes of plants. We demonstrate the possibilities of quantification of the air conditioning role of vegetation in energy units, including the assessment and monetary quantification of ecosystem services and examples of different types of thermal data for assessing the urban environment and climate. We offer the possibility of implementing this approach to spatial planning.

This monograph focuses on the concept of ‘liveable streets’ in China, which has been overlooked in the existing literature. This research has firstly developed an analytical framework with a hierarchy of liveability qualities, factors, and specific indicators for Shanghai. The framework was initially informed by the literature and then refined through questionnaires and interviews with urban development professionals in China (n = 107). Interviews with residents (n = 242) on residential streets were also conducted. The research applied and tested the framework’s usefulness in practice on fifteen selected street segments. Some street segments are rooted in the Chinese tradition, while others showcase strong international influences. According to their historical-morphological characteristics, the selected streets are categorised as S, M, L, XL, and XXL streets. Each category includes three parallel street segments that carry different volumes of vehicular traffic. The study reveals many physical and functional characteristics of streets that are conducive to vibrant social life, particularly manifested in the S and M streets in Shanghai. The analytical framework developed through this research informs a localised definition of liveable streets. Among six definitory liveability qualities, ‘social interaction’ and ‘sense of belonging’, reinforced by ‘local economic activities’ are specific to Shanghai and distinct from the Western context. The three other qualities include a ‘local humanised environment’, ‘facilities and mixed-uses’, and ‘safety’, which are also vital for liveable streets in Chinese cities. This research sheds light on contextualising liveability qualities and informs the design and planning of liveable streets in China.

Planning and housing policies influence our daily lives. They determine where we live, where we work, where our children study, and the time it takes us to commute between these places. As such, planning and housing policy often affects individuals’ and households’ satisfaction with each of these and determines the price to be paid by anyone who is not satisfied and wishes to make a change. On the basis of this fundamental premise, we set out to examine how Israel’s planning and housing policy has influenced the decision of middle-class families to migrate away from the metropolitan core and the implications of the move for the employment situations of these families, and of women in these families in particular. The analysis is based on a large survey of women and men in Israel who moved away from the heart of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area into smaller municipalities on its outskirts. The study has three theoretical pillars: planning and housing policy, internal migration, and women’s employment. We examine the relationship between these pillars, focusing on its implications for various aspects of women’s employment. The findings show that women are more likely than men to change their place of work following the move and to suffer a decrease in income, and to trade higher-paying jobs for a shorter commute. These findings show how planning and housing policies can increase gender inequality in the labour market and point to how it can be avoided. This issue is relevant today more than ever in the face of the dramatic changes women’s employment has undergone over the last century, and in particular, in face of the current global housing affordability crisis and its impact on migration trends of middle-class families.