On the grounds of two unique features of land, locational specificity and capacity for betterment through in-situ entrepreneurial transformation, this monograph uses three real world examples to qualify Coase’s idea, mentioned in two of his works on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), that a state monopoly of land is undesirable for allocating land due to the huge transaction costs of non-price allocation. These two features of land enable the creation of institutional arrangements constraining such costs occasioned by rent-seeking or rent dissipation envisaged by Coase. Breaking new theoretical grounds in understanding planning beyond a matter of property rights assignment and attenuation, the three examples show that where the state has an effective monopoly of land supply, it does not behave like a private land monopoly but, subject to constrained rent-seeking, enables, and also possibly brings about the betterment of land and its redistribution by government planning. The examples, two of which testify to a Coase Theorem predicated on Coase’s first work on the FCC, also shed light on the question of property boundaries as an ex ante planning tool for de jure property or an ex post outcome of development. The monograph shows that the transaction costs of both dividing and recombining tradable land, as physically unitized into land parcels within a layout, are greater than partitioning and re-partitioning marketable segments of radio frequencies.
The question of how regions and nations develop new sources of industrial growth is of recurring interest in economic geography and planning studies. From an evolutionary economic geography (EEG) perspective, new growth paths emerge out of existing economic activities and their associated assets and conditions. In response to the micro-economic and endogenous focus of much EEG research, this paper utilises a broader evolutionary perspective on path creation which stresses the dynamic interplay between four sets of factors: regional assets; key economic and organisational actors; mechanisms of path creation; and multi-scalar institutional environments and policy initiatives. Reflecting the importance of extra-regional networks and institutions, this framework is also informed by the Global Production Networks (GPN) approach, which highlights the process of strategic coupling between firms and regions and its political and institutional mediation by state institutions at different spatial scales. We deploy this framework to investigate regional path creation in the context of renewable energy technologies, focusing specifically on the offshore wind industry. We adopt a comparative cross-national approach, examining the evolution of offshore wind in Germany, the UK and Norway. Of the three cases, Germany has developed the most deep-rooted and holistic path to date, characterised by leading roles in both deployment and manufacturing. By contrast, path creation in the UK and Norway has evolved in more partial and selective ways. The UK’s growth path is developing in a relatively shallow manner, based largely upon deployment and ‘outside in’ investment, whilst Norway’s path is emerging in an exogenous, ‘inside-out’ fashion around a fairly confined set of actors and deployment and supply functions. In conclusion, the paper emphasises the important role of national states in orchestrating the strategic coupling of regional and national assets to particular mechanisms of path creation.
We develop an analytical repertoire for understanding historical interrelationships between water infrastructure, regional environmental politics, and large-scale coastal ecosystems. In doing so, we scrutinize how notions of urban resilience, climate adaptation, and ecosystem-based infrastructure are influencing contemporary planning practice. Our account from New Orleans and the Mississippi River Delta traces several large-scale hydrological engineering projects with origins in the early 20th century, which aimed to restructure the landscape for more effective maritime transportation, flood protection, and urban drainage. The account then turns to a discussion of a massive and ongoing planning project, which aims to restore the historical dynamics of the Mississippi River Delta, diverting the river into nearby coastal wetlands to provide storm protection for vulnerable communities, most especially New Orleans. Our analysis shows how the development of water infrastructure systems in the region produced cleavages in the region’s body politic and eco-hydrology, generating disputes that threaten to slow or obstruct the plan’s implementation. The study shows how the forms and discourses of political contention in the present are deeply informed by past decisions regarding the placement, operation, and maintenance of water infrastructures in the region. The conflicts that emerge from these cleavages comprise the primary obstacle facing ecosystem-based strategies aimed at securing New Orleans and other major settlements in the region from storm surges. This raises fundamental challenges for planning practice, which are explored here through a discussion of situational dissensus, conflicting rationalities, and pathways for democratic institutional innovation.
There is an extensive literature on relationships between the built environment and travel, but the vast majority of such studies rely solely on statistical analyses of available travel survey data, with limited possibilities for demonstrating causality. This article presents findings from a methodologically novel study drawing on a combination of a tailor-made questionnaire survey and in-depth qualitative interviews, including cross-sectional as well as longitudinal analyses. Our mixed-methods approach offers stronger evidence of causal influences than in most previous studies on the built environment and travel. We illuminate such relationships in two metropolitan areas differing considerably in their size and urban structure: the relatively monocentric Norwegian capital Oslo and the smaller, predominantly polycentric Stavanger area. The study encompasses travel distances and modes for both commuting and intra-metropolitan non-work purposes. The paper thus offers a comparison of the influences of built environment characteristics on travel across metropolitan contexts as well as for different travel purposes.
This paper examines the relationship between urban planning practice and planning violations in Bangalore. Through ethnography of the practice of planning networks, It demonstrates that the domain of urban planning in Bangalore is shaped by the ethos and practices of mutually contesting Public and Private interest associational networks working to achieve Public and Private interest outcomes respectively. This is demonstrated using ho w private interest networks shape planning through plan violations and planning for violations as well as how public interest networks shape planning through multiple political, legal and administrative interventions, both of which together prevents the formation of any ideal typical planning system for a Comprehensive Master Planning Regime. Rather than a deviation, violations are identified as the outcome of the particular kind of planning practice embedded within the political culture of democratic governance in India. Ethnographies of Indian state constantly points to the blurred boundaries between the categories of state and society in India. Findings from this research conform to this; actors from both inside and outside government rather than act to achieve the cause of their positions act in the interest of the networks within which they are associated with – public or private interest. Therefore, combining lessons from political systems and policy networks studies of the state and governance with ethnographies of the everyday state in India I propose a conceptual language of Vernacular Governance to trace the constantly changing shape of planning practice in Bangalore through its relationship with planning violations. This paper attempts to raise questions on theorizing planning practices as embedded within the political culture of particular contexts, rather than taking for granted dualist conceptualizations of state and society producing on the one hand theorizations of planning failures and on the other, informality, implementation failure and corruption.
The planning for and design of streets around the world have been undergoing a radical change via a move from a network efficiency model to a movement and place-based one. This is a fundamental change, and it is important to understand both the benefits and drawbacks that result. This research represents an attempt to capture and understand these impacts and to address the question, what is the ‘value’, in the widest sense of the word, of place-based improvements in street design. The key features of the approach adopted here were, the use of pairwise comparisons of five improved and five unimproved streets across London, a holistic analytical framework to represent the complexity of urban streets, and the use of diverse qualitative and quantitative data to understand the diverse forms of value that might accrue from interventions. As well as important methodological innovations and insights, the research revealed that in relation to street improvements in the sorts of mixed local high street locations investigated, investments in the quality of the street environment return substantial value to the everyday users of streets, and to the occupiers of space (to business) and investors in surrounding property in multiple ways.
Consider autonomous, discontinuous and non-linear change a constant factor in the transformative world we humans are part of: Heraclitus revisited. What seems to be stable is nothing more than a temporary period of persistence, a frozen moment within a dynamic world, the lee-side of a world in flow. As there is no permanent stability, tensions, frictions, mismatches and breaks occur more or less constantly. Such a situation is not necessarily undesirable. On the contrary, these tensions, frictions and mismatches prove to be essential for development and progress. This contribution will construct a frame of reference for such a world of discontinuous change, proposing ordering principles that can guide planners and decision-makers in a world of non-linear change.
There is a robust international debate about how best to tackle spatial inequalities within nations and regions. The paper discusses three contrasting approaches: spatial rebalancing, space-neutral and place-based. They vary in the scope and purpose of government policy, from redistributing economic activity, to facilitating aggregate growth, and realising the economic potential of less-developed regions. The paper applies this framework to analyse South Africa’s five decades of experience of spatial policies. The context is one of stark spatial inequalities, uneven institutional capabilities, and mounting political pressure for change. Under apartheid, spatial targeting was highly instrumental and played a role in reproducing social divisions at considerable financial cost. Since the end of apartheid there has been much experimentation with spatial initiatives, but without any overarching vision or policy framework. A cautionary conclusion is that there are risks of extravagant spending in marginal locations when political pressures are strong, public institutions are weak and economic disciplines are lacking. Another is that place-based policies have potential, but require stronger vertical and horizontal policy alignment to stand any chance of tackling entrenched spatial divides. Enhanced local institutions involving private sector and community stakeholders are also essential for spatial policies to respond to the specific challenges and opportunities encountered in each place.