"The Real Time City? Big Data and Smart Urbanism" - Rob Kitchin (2014)

The following is a review/summary of Rob Kitchin's text entitled "The Real Time City? Big Data and Smart Urbanism"

Kitchin begins by describing and breaking down 'smart cities'. He states - 'smart cities are increasingly composed of and monitored by persuasive and ubiquitous computing and whose economy and governance is being driven by innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship enacted by smart people". He then goes onto say that smart cities are urban places composed of 'everyware' - any digitally instrumented device which is built into the very fabric of urban environments.

Kitchin identifies 5 key characteristics of smart cities:

1. Widespread embedding of ICT
2. business-dominated environment with a neo-liberal government
3. Focus on spatial and human dimensions of the city from a creative city perspective
4. Adoption of smarter cities agenda
5. Focus on social and environmental sustainability

"Smart cities prioritise data capture and analysis as a means for underpinning evidence informed policy development, enacting technocratic governance, empowering citizen and stimulating economic innovation and growth."

Big Data and Cities

• Big data is: huge in volume, velocity, has diverse variance, exhaustive in scope, fine-grained in resolution, relational in nature and is flexible
• There's huge amount of data in the world (estimated 7 exabytes of data in the world in 2010). This accounts for a 40% growth rate, this is primarily due to increasing driving technology, infrastructure, techniques and processes

Three sources of big data:

1. Directed - surveillance (e.g. CCTV)
2. Automated - inherent, automatic function (e.g. tills in shops to manage performance)
3. Volunteered - gifted by the user (e.g. social media)

Automated forms of big data are the most important in providing continuous data to smart cities (e.g. Intelligent Transport System and the automatic number plate recognition system). This data would enable any planner or problem solver to enforce relevant and accurate change in cities

The Real Time City

• Cities use real-time analysis to manage aspects of how city functions are regulated - e.g. vehicle movement, crime, environmental conditions
• This real time analysis has been attempted to be brought into single hubs around the world (e.g. Centro De Operacoes Prefeitora Do Rio in Rio de Janeiro) or in single public-accessible areas (e.g. SmartSantander app - Santander and CASA' London City Dashboard)
• "This use of big data provides the basis for a more efficient, sustainable, competitive, productive, open and transparent city"

Five Concerns About a Real Time City

1. The Politics of Big Urban Data

• Data is not totally objective and pre-analytic - it is shaped by a system of thought, technical know-how, public and political opinion, ethics and regulatory features
• Big data generally captures things openly expressed or their by-products (e.g. things that are physically said, done or committed). Big data does not consider the "complex contingent and rational inner life-worlds of people and places"
• Data are generated in systems designed to enact a particular political and policy vision. Results are infected by social privilege and values.   

2. Technocratic Governance and City Development

• This is the redirecting of big data as an automated solution - this allows governments to have the excuse - "its not us, its the data!"
• This technocratic governance is narrow in scope and fails to account for wider effects of culture, politics, policy, governance and capital

3, The Corporisation of City Governance and a Technical Lock-In

• Technical corporate interests are embedded into cities - there are 3 concerns of this:

1. It promotes neo-liberal economy and marketisation of the public sector
2. Technocratic lock-in - the corporate path dependency cannot be be easily diverted (e.g. US car manufacturers during the mid 1900s)
3. 'One size fits all smart city in a box' - takes little account for the uniqueness of places, people and culture

4, Buggy, Brittle and Hackable Cities

• The creation of code/spaces through projects leaves smart cities vulnerable to viruses, crashes, glitches and hacks
• Cities are ever reliant and more technology is layered on top of already brittle foundations of ICT, this just superimposes the original issue.

5. The Panoptic City?

With automated, real-time data and other forms being introduced regularly, issues of privacy, confidentiality and freedom of expression 

"The Global City: Introducing a Concept" - Saskia Sassen (2005)

The following is a review/summary of Sassen's text entitled "The Global City: Introducing a Concept"

Sassen begins by highlighting the 'global' of a global city - "the specificity of the global is as it gets structured in the contemporary period". She goes onto state that a global city differs to a 'world city' which is a city that has been seen over centuries - i.e. in earlier Asian and European colonies.

The Global City Model: Organising Hypotheses 

There are 7 hypotheses Sassen touches on to give a 'precise representation' of the model:

1. Geographic dispersal of businesses economic activities - the more dispersed the more complex and strategic its central functions are
2. Increased complexity of central functions led to outsourcing becoming the norm. This is especially common among global firms
3. These specialised firms then undertake complex tasks and with short deadlines leads to the need for a broader scope of expertise
4. More outsourcing by HQs led to less tasks they had to complete and therefore made them subject to agglomeration economies - this underlines the advantages global cities possess (a highly specialised and network service sector
5. Global service standards required from specialised firms led to increased cross-border transactions which may have been the beginning of the transnational urban system
6. Increased high-level professionalism and high-profit making specialised firms widens spatial and socioeconomic inequality in these cities
7. Leading on from the above point, this leads to wide-spread informalisation of many economic activities

Recovering Place and Work Process

• Sassen notes that global cities control, as they have the resources necessary, global economic activities - therefore the focus of needs goes onto practises and place
• "Focusing on work processes brings with it an emphasis on economic and spatial polarisation because of the disproportionate concentration of very high and very low income jobs in the major global city sector"
• Additional emphasis needs to be placed on geography - "recapturing the geography of a place involved in globalisation allows us to recapture people, workers, communities and work cultures"

Worldwide Networks and Central Command Functions

• Business networks thrive in cities due to agglomeration economies when simultaneous global communication is possible
• Extent of dispersal (control, ownership and profit) is a key variable contributing to central concentration of functions 
• Geographic dispersal and concentration is key in the global economic system - for example firms who are majorly dispersed face new concentration needs, especially when their affiliates involve foreign countries with different legal and accounting needs
• Stocks led to massive increase in international transfer of funds
• Centrality in global cities of central command functions (top level financial, legal, accounting, managerial, executive and planning) exists although they have still embedded national corporate structures
• Global markets still require central places of work - generally in cities (most innovative, speculative and internationalised)

Impacts of New Communication Technologies on Centrality

• Cities provide economies with massive concentration of information, technology and marketplace - therefore 'centrality'
• - How does technology of communication alter the role of centrality and hence cities as economic entities? Due to communication technology the CBD does not totally portray centrality, today there are 3 forms of centrality:

1. The CBD
2. The Metropolitan area - grid nodes of intense business activities, also regional grids connected through transport communication and information technology
3. 'Transterrestrial' centre - via telematics and intense economic transactions (e.g. Paris, New York, Tokyo, London, Sydney, Hong Kong, Zurich and Los Angeles)

• These developments of new communication technology has not, as it was expected to, decreased inequality - especially by non-global cities. The same hierarchical and spatial inequalities exist
• Cities connected to global economy tend to be disconnected from their region

The Global City as a Nexus for new Politico-Cultural Alignments

• Sassen states that "cities are a site for new types of political operations and for a new whole range of new cultural and subjective operations"
• Loss of political power at the national level produces the possibility for new forms of power and politics at sub-national levels
• Immigration is a major trans-national political issue - politics originates largely in the major cities, similarly to global cities
• Who manages the connection between global cities - they are not geographically labelled and have no over-arching government. This is why strategic terrain and connection is a series of conflict and contradiction

"The Americanisation of Australian Planning" - Robert Freestone (2004)

The following post touches on Robert Freestone text of the Americanisation of Australian Planning, introduces the theme of American planning and its influence on Australian planning and evaluates the impacts this influence has had on modern Australia.

Many aspects of modern Australia are subjected to the influence of American ideals despite the obvious colonial connections with Britain. In the words of Philip and Roger Bell (1993); modern Australian society steers between “British cultural imperialism and Coca-colonisation alike.” This connection is identical in Australian urban and regional planning.

American influence of Australian planning was extremely prominent during the City Beautiful movement of the 1890s and 1900s (The City Beautiful Movement, n.d.) where Australia sought to improve their “uninteresting colonial cities despoiled by utilitarianism, devoid of world class public spaces and landmarks, and lacking civic pride” (Freestone, 2004). This movement led to the introduction of open public and green spaces with immense focus on the arts and design.

During the WW1 era the focus for Australian planning redirected toward city functionality. Australia continued to seek inspiration from our American partners; this was extremely beneficial during this movement due to Australia’s individualised nature – “we think of my piece of land, of my lot, of my garden, while our American neighbours think of their city” (Peddle, 1917). This saw the introduction and growth of American land-use zoning regulations, playground system and comprehensive urban master plans to achieve cities with exemplary “efficiency, economy, specialization, and coordination” (Freestone, 2004).

Post-Great Depression and pre-WW2 saw an influx of American planning ideals into Australia. Particular focus went on urban areas, with ‘renewal projects, innovative site planning, large-scale slum clearance, rehousing schemes, new-style master plans, freeway planning, greenbelt towns and Radburn-style planning’ (the typical design used during the 1970s for public housing) becoming more prominent (Freestone, 2004).

Post WW2, with massive population booms and further technological breakthroughs British inspired greenbelt and public open spaces offered immediate post war planning solutions. Beyond the 1950s American planning practices offered solutions to Australian cities problems including transportation problems. Common solutions included the development of multi-lane freeways and corridor development – for example Canberra’s “Y Plan” (Wright, 2001). But essentially, these practices were initiated to address American-like “automobilism and consumerism” which cultivated the world. These characteristics ultimately led to the rise of not only multi-lane freeways and sprawling suburbs, but also planned shopping malls (Freestone, 2004). This shift of focus not only altered Australian planning, but planning worldwide.  

Negative Impacts of American Planning Practices

Despite playing a vital part in Australian planning history, American planning practices do not always offer a favourable solution. Freestone (2004) concurs with this connotation where he states “American cities offer as many negative warnings on urban trends as positive solutions”. This does not necessarily have to mark the beginning of a long negative period for Australian planning. Australia can learn from the mistakes and model the successes American planners encountered in response to these challenges. Freestone (2004), when quoting the work of Saxil Tuxen captured this – “Australia could learn from America’s good examples ‘without falling prey to… its many faults,’ such as its laissez faire organisation of utilities and the ‘ugly face of commercialism.’”   

Planning activities during the 1980s in Australia were to be centred around reversing the issues our cities experienced due to American planning influence, particularly the automobile and freeway dominance. This dominance heavily contributed to Australia ranking amongst the top three countries with the lowest population density (Australia with approximately 3 people per square kilometre) in the world (World Atlas, as of 2006). A key focus-point during this time was on freeways “environmental damage, social dislocation and property acquisition impacts” (Freestone, 2004).

However these efforts were to be in vain with freeways returning “in the 1990s as links between good transportation infrastructure and urban economic growth were reaffirmed” (Freestone, 2004). It is ironic that only just in the last decade that we again are trying to densify our population and minimise the impacts of freeways. This is outlined in an ‘the Australian’ article by Annabel Hepworth (2012) where the then Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese called the urban planners in the 18 major cities to develop a mechanism for large-scale urban renewal in suburbs close to the city centres and transport hubs.

"Progress in Australian planning history traditions themes and transformations" - Robert Freestone (2014)

The following is a review/summary of Robert Freestone's text Progress in Australian planning history traditions themes and transformations (2014).

FileThe purpose of this text is to review Australian planning history in general with specific focus on post-2002 Australian contributions to planning history development.

“Planning history is the historical study of all aspects of urban and regional planning and its variants within their social, economic, cultural and environmental contexts.”

Why Planning History?

History can be good and it can be bad. ‘Bad’ history can be used and abused by a certain group which creates bias. Planning history can also create bias when “history’s ideology is hijacked to legitimise political ends and for nationalistic, religious and economic purposes”.

Also history influences our present day decision making, “we too often fail to realise that our ideas and actions have been thought and done by others, long ago; we should be conscious of our roots.”

Planning history itself can also act as a planning tool - Therefore deeper understanding and analysis of planning history is necessary. This led to the initiation/globalisation of many planning history groups (International Planning History Society)

Concerns about planning history

Freestone touches and cyphers through many planning texts about the concerns of planning history and comes to 3 main concluding points:

·         research takes a largely empirical approach, expressed within narrative writing and case study formats.

·         planning forms the subject and planners the main actors.

·         stories are still dominated by a Western modernist perspective.

·

He goes onto mention critiques against town planning and planning history. Some of the main descriptives used were

-          Town planning is described as “amateur” when viewed by the standards of the social science disciplines

-          “too diverse”

-          “on the side of angels”

-          “top-down, professionally reaffirming, ‘malestream’”

An Australian Planning History

The Development of Australian Planning

In this section Freestone organises Australian planning history into sequential time periods where he touches on the dynamic nature of planning and altering focus:

¢  Inventing planning

¢  Post-war reconstruction

¢  The long boom

¢  Re-imagining planning 

¢  Neo-liberalism and beyond

-          Inventing planning (1900s–1930s).

This focused on reversing the issues which arose prior to federalisation in the British-colonial era. These focus issues are all subsequent branches of urbanisation, they included: slums and slum clearance, transport infrastructure, civic design and land use zoning.

-          Post-war reconstruction (1940s–early 1950s).

This period saw planning became more of a government issue with the evolution of “legislative reforms at state government level, government departments, statutory authorities, advisory panels, commissions and committees”

-          The long boom (1950s–1960s).

Planning systems grew through advancement in each jurisdiction – where “technocratic modernist ideals” dominated

-          Re-imagining planning (late 1960s–1970s).

Planning became more complex and with wider focus. Major focus went on land-use zoning and environmental aspects as global warming became widely accepted. These environmental aspects were also a focus in Australia as environmental challenges such as drought, flood, fire, other natural hazards had major impacts

-          Neo-liberalism and beyond (1980s to date).

Focus of planners was on “economic development and employment growth on the one hand, and environmental protection and community amenity on the other”. This period saw the planning professional become more multifaceted with flexibility being key.

Upon review of this chronological evolution of the Australian planning system Freestone makes some important links. He notices the “early influence of British town and country planning thought, with later American environmental initiatives, and then selective adaptation from an increasingly globalised planning toolkit”.

The emergence of planning history writing

Documentation of planning’s evolution in Australia dates back to “George Taylor’s pioneering text” in 1914. After this breakthrough, the theses of planning history writings have shifted to coincide with the era of planning as outlined previously.   

The first planning history texts mainly explored past, present and contemplated future planning events. This evolved when entering Post WW2 and the long boom eras were the focus shifted to critiquing Australia’s “over- heated city centres and what they saw as dreary outer suburbs comprising unappealing low-density housing estates gashed by wasteful ribbon development”. These periods saw work emerge from Robin Boyd, Gavin Walkley, Patrick Abercrombie and Denis Winston.

Political and equity concerns about Australian planning were continually raised during the 1970s. These topics were heavily documented in: Stretton’s “Ideas for Australian Cities” (1970), Sandercock’s “Cities for Sale” (1975) and Spearritt’s “Urban History of Sydney - since the 1920s” (1978)

While more recent planning texts switched its focus to “confirming the value and market for new planning history, while drawing on the concerns and methods of social science”. This was heavily prominent in “With Conscious Purpose: A History of Town Planning in South Australia” (1986) by Alan Hutchings and Ray Bunker.

Stocktaking progress

Freestone himself has completed 3 previous historical biographies of Australian Planning History in which he makes reference to – 1983, 1993 and 2002

1983

“Three major themes were identified: the emergence of a robust agenda for studying various aspects of planning’s development from the 1900s, the importance of British precedent in early Australian developments, and the shift from idealism to pragmatism in planning thought from the 1920s onwards”  

1993

A decade after the initial recording other deeper strains came into the foresight of Australian planning history – “colonial town layout, civic design, housing, planning movements, Canberra, metropolitan planning, political conflict and federal urban policy”

2002

The third records the growing diversity of the planning profession, where this increasing diversity “helps to outline a ‘crossroads of inter-disciplinary endeavour’”

These stocktakes identified that Australian planning heavily focuses on metropolitan areas, the general trends of urban planning have shifted between the peripheral growth, the ‘middle-ring’ and inner-city consolidation.

Developing a theme: a garden city trace

Since the ‘maturation’ of planning history in the 1980s there has been an influx of Australian planning reviews. These reviews identify a common theme, the garden city. These typically compare the Australian garden suburbs to those of a “landmark garden communities elsewhere”.

Planning history conferences: the urban history/planning history (UHPH) series 1993-2012

Australian planning history conferences are held biennially and are conducted independently which allows them to remain informal. The purpose of these is to “provide an institutional lens on growth and trends in the field capturing both the widening array of subjects and depth of scholarship. All have been products of their time, place and theme to some extent”

City	Year	Theme
Sydney	1993	The Australian Planner
Canberra	1995
Melbourne	1996	The Australian City – Future/Past
Sydney	1998	The 20th C planning experience
Adelaide	2000
Auckland	2002	Southern Crossings
Geelong	2004	The 21st C City – Present/Past/Future
Wellington	2006	Past Matters
Caloundra	2008	Sea Change – New and renewed urban landscapes
Melbourne	2010	Green fields, Brown fields and New fields
Perth	2012	Urban Transformations – booms, busts and other catastrophes
Wellington	2014	Landscapes and Ecologies of Urban and Planning History

   

Interfaces with other histories

Freestone explores “the productive and developing intellectual linkages with cognate fields. As an interdisciplinary endeavour, planning history inevitably intersects with other historical approaches”

Architectural History

There have been three productive meeting grounds of architectural and planning history:

1.       Pioneering architect-planners - those individuals who moved between the design and development, particularly during the post-second world war era.

2.       Architectural ensembles and their management (the regulatory realm such as building height controls) and the development of planned architectural precincts and facilities including community centres and housing estates.

3.       Urban design – planning controls has a large design dimension

Urban History

“There have been various reviews of Australian urban history which are revealing for how little they say about planning history”

This account is revealing of an at times surprisingly fragile nexus between urban and planning history in Australia.

He goes onto state that, despite the absence of planning history in urban history, ‘undoubtedly’ urban studies generally have infused planning history methodology in different ways. For example through: encounters with the messiness of everyday urbanism, nuanced sensitivity to the complexities of place and greater reflection on the limitations of planning and the forces of anti-planning.

Environmental History

“Environmental history can not only contribute to contemporary planning debates but intertwine with ‘the political interests and outcomes that are the focus of planning history’.”

“Environmental attitudes drive early land management practices (such as land use regulation and classification) which can lead to impacts on planning and therefore planning history

Also, the listing of heritage places (e.g. the Plan of Adelaide) has direct influences on town planning which subsequently impact on planning history.

Social History

Links have been made between planning history to general social life. For example, poor planning practices link to inadequate housing which contribute to homelessness.

Innovative Discourses

This section of the paper explores more examples of how planning history is constantly being progressed and has recently been refreshed both within the interstices and at the margins

Human encounters with top-down planners

 Modern planning has shifted away from a top-down approach toward an approach with “a deeper appreciation of human experience since the mid-1900s”. This has led to increased community participation and consultation, for example “the emergence of a ‘city social’ planning agenda from women, appreciating the amateur entries into the federal capital competition of 1911–12, and revisiting visions for new communities spawned by the idealism of the post war reconstruction era in the 1940s”

“‘In failing to countenance the input of the general public into planning, and planners’ negotiations with the public’, planning history can ‘deny unique or discrete aspects of the planning experience.’”

Deconstructing the morphology of planned landscapes

Urban morphology can be broken into three main dimensions: urban form (buildings and spaces), resolution (scale) and time (evolution and transformation). By breaking the planned landscape into these areas we are able to better understand them through three main types of study: the descriptive (city form), the explanatory (city building) and the normative (city design).

This highlights the diversity of the planning field, the history of planning and planned landscapes

The gender agenda

Prior to the 1990s women’s contributions in planning were rarely recognised. This was noted in Leonie Sandercock’s 1975 text Cities for Sale which critiqued the dominance of the “great man” approach in planning. Only until recently, when Sandercock came to revise her second addition of Cities for Sale during the 1990s that women’s participation in the planning field were noticed and documented. Particular note went on women’s advocacy of better housing and more extensive facilities for children and their active nature in progress associations and resident action groups.

This is also evident in Canberra’s planning history with Marion Mahoney Griffin’s contributions to the plan of Canberra becoming increasingly recognised.

Children and Planning

The transformation of society and our children throughout history have also influenced changes in planning approaches and ideas. This is highlighted when Victorian-era planning is compared to modern planning. Health and well-being of children, particularly during slum clearance was a significant planning consideration throughout the Victorian era and this is directly contrasted to modern day concerns of child obesity, safety, social exclusion, and transport access. This has led to the promotion of national fitness days and the inclusion of children’s playgrounds in many regional and urban centres.

Indigeneity

During the European-dominant eras in Australia, Indigenous people were “virtually scripted out” of the town planning process with planning being described as “a normative and conservative profession, defining and managing a land system based on stolen property, oriented primarily to the needs of metropolitan commerce and operating to contain and confine racialised social groups”

There are considerations that modern planning also privileges Eurocentric ideals, with land-use zoning and other modern planning practices creating conflict over “land tenure, utilisation and value to the present day” 

Recent documentation on the issue has highlighted the contributions of Indigenous Australians in the planning process including their layout of villages so it could accommodate several hundred people and their influence in the form and function of the original town grids, land reservations and the siting of roads and infrastructure.

**********************

New Methods, New Sources 

This section is to convey the importance of plurality of historical method and data sources.

There have been significant texts recently by both Duggan (2001) and Spearitts’s Sydney since the Twenties (1978) which move beyond traditional archival sources to images such as cartoons, advertisements and artwork. 

Freestone makes reference to other methods being used to increase the relevance of planning history, these include: oral history, official autobiographies, archaeological methods and fictionalisation of planning history. This enables the reconstruction and conjecture of planning history to be more creative.

Canvassing the Future of the Past

Freestone goes onto prescribe 4 “observations to productively move forward”. However, in doing this he states “a definitive future research agenda is futile. If the field of planning history is to remain engaging, dynamic and relevant, it will generate its own pathways.”

Deeper Institutional and Place Based Histories

Describing institutional and place-based histories as “a niche that needs to be filled” Freestone uses the local Woden-Weston Creek example led by John Gilchrist. This plan “is a fascinating story of the struggle for acceptance of modern planning ideas for long term growth and neighbourhood planning” which put the progressives against the conservatives.

Evaluation of planning outcomes

The need for “detailed, holistic evaluations of planning in practice” is imperative. Freestone goes onto state that “holistic evaluations can deliver real impact” in achieving “policy-relevant aspirations” which planning historians commonly strive for.

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Strong connections of history between the disciplines outlined in the previous section are vital in order to achieve feasible and detailed historical work in the future. But also, connections with our Australasian partners need to be enhanced so potential issues which the area encounters can be effectively neutralised.    

Talking to the community

Planning history needs to be more than just a history of and for planners. The prospective audience is much wider and lessons need to be communicated to and appreciated by government officials, elected representatives, and the community at large.

"New Directions in Planning Theory" - Fainstein (2000)

The following is a review/summary of Fainstein's work entitled "New Directions in Planning Theory"

• Fainstein discusses 3 planning approaches throughout - communicative model, new urbanism and the Just-City model.
• From the beginning Fainstein states her favour for the Just-City model. This article is essentially to outline the disadvantages of the communicative and new urbanism approaches while heavily pushing the advantages of the Just-City model.

Communicative Model

• Based on planners as mediators and facilitators of discussion
• Celebrates top-down planning deploying 'enlightenment' discourse that posits unitary public interest
• Originates from different philosophies - realism, empiricism, Hegelian idealism and scrutiny of language

Fainstein scrutinises the communicative model:
- "When ideal speech becomes the objective of planning, the argument takes a moralistic tone and its proponents seem to forget the economic and social forces that produce conflict"
- "Communicative theorists avoid dealing with the classic topic of what to do when open processes produce unjust results. They also do not think paternalism and bureaucratic modes of decision making may produce desirable outcomes"
- Communicative planning in practise has gaps between rhetoric and action, lengthy time required for participatory processes and potential conflict between processes and outcomes

New Urbanism

• Outcome-based view of planning a "compact, heterogeneous city"
• Design-orientated appraoch - developed by architects and journalists
• Aim: using spatial relations to create close-knit communities that allow diverse elements of interaction

She again cristises:
- "Proponents oversell their product, promoting unrealistic environmental determinism"
- "Privileging spatial forms over social processes"
- Overcoming suburbanisation is high on the priority list of new urbanists - they rely on private developers they are therefore developing only slightly less exclusive suburbs as the ones they dislike
"Fail to consider segregation within the greater urban area - e.g. class and ethnicity - and may perpetuate it"

• She then goes onto say the new urbanist approach is better than the communicative model "because its hopefulness and because the place it seeks to create appeals to anyone tired of suburban monotony and bland modernism"    

The Just-City Approach

• "Utopian thinkers could not succeed because they developed a social ideal that did not coincide with a material reality dominated by capitalist interests"
• Just-City theorists are radical democrats and political economists - they have a radical view of participation and accept conflictual view on society
• Just-City theorists do not assume neutrality of govt - purpose of their vision is to mobilise the public rather than to prescribe a methodology of those in office
• Vision of just-city: include the entrepreneurial state - not only provides welfare but generates wealth, empowers the poor, disfranchised and the middle class (therefore, the majority)
• Deliberations in civil society "is a double-edged nature of the state, its ability to effect both regressive and progressive social change"
• An identified just-city may serve as a policy and process exemplar for other cities

"Anglo-American Town Panning Theory since 1945: three significant development but no paradigm shifts" - Nigel Taylor (1999)

The following is a brief review/summary of Taylor's work entitled "Anglo-American Town Panning Theory since 1945: three significant development but no paradigm shifts"

Taylor argues that although planning theory has developed greatly especially as a political and environmental process and to 'postmodernism' but these have 'filled out' primitive planning theory. He then goes on to introduce the idea of a paradigm as a changing world view - the whole way of perceiving something is overturned. With this in mind Taylor believes there has not been multiple planning paradigm shifts - he doesn't consider changing ethics and values which have been common in planning history as 'paradigm shifts'.

He then goes on to describe 3 significant shifts in the way town planning has been conceived:

1.  From the planner as a creative designer to the planner as a scientific analyst and rational decision maker

• Planning is seen as "architecture writ large" until the 1960s - advanced to the 'ideal-type' conception where towns were viewed as "'systems' of interrelated activities in a constant state of flux". Towns were then examined in social and economic terms - they were identified as a 'process'. Therefore planners were required to have more skills, techniques are were required to be able to analyse scientific.
• Therefore, there was a shift in planning as an 'art' to a 'science'
• As the design element of planning hasn't been overtaken, just superimposed by the scientific processes, Taylor argues this cannot be considered a paradigm shift

2.  From the planner as a technical expert to the planner as a manager and communicator

• After the 1960s shift to planners as 'rational-decision makers' questions were raised by the public which questioned planners qualifications over others to make executive decisions for the entire community. Therefore planning was seen as a "value laden political process"
• Theorists then agreed that planners have no such expertise
• Therefore, planners were required to have "skills in managing the process of arriving at planning decisions and facilitating action to realise publicly agreed goals"
• Led to increasing planners skills in ciphering other people's assessments of planning issues, mediation and therefore becoming a facilitator. 

3.  Modernist to postmodernist planning theory: a shift in normative planning thought

Postmodernists celebrate "complexity, diversity, difference and pluralism" but maintains base principles present in modernist theory - such as focus on environmental quality and on reason and scientific understanding

"The Communicative Turn in Planning Theory and its Implications for Spatial Strategy Formation" - Healey (1996)

The following is a review/summary of Healey's text "The Communicative Turn in Planning Theory and its Implications for Spatial Strategy Formation"

This paper explores "the potential of new ideas about public argumentation and communicative policy practice developing in planning theory addressing the task of strategic spatial strategy-making". With urban regions becoming more diverse and less inter-related there is an increasing need for spatial strategy, also as urban areas are almost set in compeition against each other - "people and companies seek locations with the institutional capacity to resolve conflicts, decrease tension and deliver a healthy local environment".

Public policy making as communicative argumentation
There have been two paradigm shifts in 20th Century planning:

1. Strategic planning based on modelling dynamics of urban systems and managing them with strategies developed through rational planning approach - brought vocabulary on instrumental rationality and regional economics aligned to management science.
2. Understanding of power relations of urban region economics came through analysis of the structuring dynamics of economic and political relations. 

These shifts focused on material conditions - construction, power struggles, economy and environment. They place little focus on 'fine-grain' economics and social relations, valuing places and rising environmental concerns. Therefore, they have failed to recognise cultural diversity

A new paradigm looks to recognise diversity, complex economic and social relations and development of normative approaches to judge discussions with the public. All these aims can be achieved with communicative practices. But to firstly enhance public communication an inclusionary approach must be adopted.  

A communicative approach to spatial strategy formation 

In order for communities to initiate strategic planning the following questions should be asked:

1. Where is the discussion to take place?
2. In what style will the discussion be?
3. How will issues which arise in discussion be addressed?
4. How can a strategy be created and managed?
5. How can a community agree and critique a strategy?

Arenas for Argumentation

• Should be a neutral location which can house legitimacy - may be an existing organisational arrangement (e.g. government building), however here the discussion may be discredited
• Arenas typically change throughout the policy innovation cycle - as the cycle progresses it goes from 'opening out' to consolidation around a particular idea.

Style of Discourse

• This is typically what gets discussed and how - not just identifying who and what, but explores what the strategy means to other people
• An inclusionary approach should be taken when choosing the style of discourse - "actively discussing and choosing a style of discussion and recognition that everyone won't be comfortable with in the beginning" 
• Communication and language techniques used during discourse should address diversity - certain cultures may miss metaphors, irony, particular economic/scientific terminology.
• The inclusionary approach should also consider the non-present parties at the discussion because more often than not the non-present outnumber the present 

Sorting Through Arguments

• In an inclusive arena and with an inclusionary style the response from the public will be large. This 'jumble' is then organised into 'analytical and non-analytical work' of spatial planning
• A more inclusive process which encourages public questions and further discussion will increase their knowledge and then spread out the 'jumble' - this also meets public morals and values

Creating New Discourse

• The inclusionary approach seeks to challenge, acknowledge and use, when pursued by the powerful, persuasive power of discourse embedded in existing planning practices
• A challenge against the inclusionary approach to spatial planning is used to experiment and test strategic ideas in tentative ways to evaluate potential of better alternatives 

Agreement and Critique

Upon evaluation some improvement to the strategic planing process may be needed. To discuss these and semi-judicial court may be necessary.

Strategic debate between stakeholders in the matter can mean reasons for misinterpretation/conflict to be minimised

Discourse must be "subjected to continual reflective critique" - this doesn't mean constantly changing the process but the discourse should have regular attention

"Contested Cities: Social Process and Spatial Form" - David Harvey (1997)

The following is a review of David Harvey's work entitled "Contested Cities: Social Process and Spatial Form"

Throughout this text Harvey carries a 'dialectic' standpoint which is the art of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments (The Free Dictionary, 2014).

Throughout the introduction Harvey urges planners and policy makers to design flexible, adjustable cities and encourage fluid social processes that can be altered. He notes 'community' is not created through immaculate design, but "militant particular-ism in which a group coheres around a value" - e.g. environmental conservation.

• Harvey starts off by expressing the increasing urbanisation of the world, but hr questions why it is not discussed in political-economic processes and social trends. He goes on to state that continual urbanisation would lead to a 'dystopic' setting. 
• "Gas and water socialism" achieved a great deal in cleaning up cities throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, although it focused on social control it did allow living conditions for many to rise 
• Capital is not concerned with cities - it needs less workers and can move all over the world - this can lead to segregation of class within cities
• He highlights some fundamental questions and beliefs about the role of the city in political, economic, social and ecological life
• Relationships between process and form? Harvey believes process takes priority over 'things' - but often the 'things' shape the process and this is typically evident within the 'palimpsest' urban environment
• He suggests reducing urban (referring to the city as a minor feature of social organisation) - this can only occur when 3 assumptions are made about space and time:
• 1. They're passive and neutral containers of social action
• 2. They're containers of social action, but not neutral - space and time vary depending on the process
• 3. Relational view - space and time do not exist outside processes - the process determines space and time
• Therefore space and time are not simply constituted by but are also constituted by social processes
• Also true in the urban - urban and city are not simply constituted by but are also constitutive of them
• The process of urbanisation creates the thing-like structures of cities
• Social processes, in not giving rise to things, create the things which enhance the nature of those particular social pressures
• Aim should be to liberate processes of social change, however, we must understand politics will continue to be constrained to 'things' created in the past
• 
  
• Major points he makes:
• 1. Re-conceptualise the urban as a production of space and spatio-temporality to a dialectical relationship between process and time
• 2. Assumption that the 'community will save current city's mess - again, power with the thing not the process
• 3. No mention of cities in ecological literature - therefore failure to account for over 50% of the world's population
• 
  
• "Urbanisation is an ecological process and we desperately need creative ways to think and act on that relation
• We have to move urbanisation in a more central position to be debated, but before this occurs the following myths must be contested:
• 1. When we have the economic power, we then spend money of cities to support them
• 2. Political revolution sparks social relations - Harvey believes community mobilisation and transformation of militant particular-ism is vital - this enables us to find universal concerns that exist within a realm of difference
• 3. Cities are anti-ecological - however, they're ecological features themselves

'"Contested Cities" - the issue is not simply about contesting inside cities but more importantly concerns contests over the construction and framing of cities - especially into the future.'

"A Ladder of Citizen Participation" - Sherry R. Arnstein (1969)

The following is a review of Sherry Arnstein's work entitled "A Ladder of Citizen Participation". 

The basic concept of this text is summed up by Arnstein early - "citizen participation is arranged in a ladder pattern with each rung corresponding to the extent of citizens' power in determining the plan and/or program."

Arnstein describes citizen participation as citizen power, and citizen participation involves the redistribution of power that enables the 'have-nots' of society to have some say in economic and social processes. She then goes onto saying participation without redistribution of power is an empty process for these 'have-nots'.

Types of participation and non-participation 

8   Citizen Control

7   Delegated Power          Degree of citizen power

6   Partnership

5   Placation

4   Consultation                 Degree of tokenism

3   Informing

2   Therapy                        Non-participation

1   Manipulation

Characteristics and Illustrations

1. Manipulation

• On advisory committees to educate the 'have-nots'
• In the committees it is the officials who educate, persuade and advise, not the reverse
• Community Action Agencies have little power and act as grass-roots programs to somewhat include the 'have-nots'

2. Therapy

Refers to extensive activity to cure powerless of their 'pathology' rather than curing the core features (racism and victimisation for example) which cause the pathology

3. Informing

• Informing of rights, responsibilities and options citizens have
• The informing process tends to be one way - official to citizens - with little or no negotiation. This tends to be through media, pamphlets and responses to inquires

4. Consultation

• This refers to inviting citizens opinions (e.g. through attitude surveys)
• By doing this citizens "participate in participation"

5. Placation

• This refers to where citizens have some influence - tokenism is still present 
• This is the degree to which citizens are placated depends on:
• 1. Quality of technical assistance in articulating priorities
• 2. Extent to which citizens have been organised to press for these priorities 
• Citizens have clear and direct access to decision-making process

6. Partnership

• Power is redistributed through negotiation between citizens and power holders
• Shared responsibilities (joint policy boards, planning committees)
• Works best with organised power base in community - citizen leaders are accountable

7. Delegated Power

• Negotiation between citizens and power holders - may lead to citizens having majority support
• Citizens hold accountability to the program 
• Separate and parallel groups of citizen and power holders with provision for citizen veto if negotiation fails
• City councils have final veto even if citizens have majority support 

8. Citizen Power

• The degree of power where people can govern a program/institution, be in full charge of managerial aspects, be able to negotiate the conditions under which outsiders may change them
• Works best with neighbourhood co-operation with no intermediaries between it and source of funding
• Capitalised with research and development funds from the office of Economic Opportunity and other major sources of federal funding
• No model city can meet citizen control as final power and say always is with city council

Limitation of the typology

It does not include an analysis of the most significant roadblocks to achieving genuine participation - including: racism, paternalism and resistance to power redistribution, poor community's political socioeconomic infrastructure and knowledge base and difficulties of organising a citizen group in the face of futility, alienation and destruction.

Proposed West Belconnen Development

The proposal for future development further west of the already immensely sprawled suburbs of Canberra is astonishing. It first came to my attention about 3 weeks ago, but today, our guest speaker Michael Pilbrow - who is involved in the West Belconnen development, raised the issue again, and I was further puzzled. (Area of proposed development shown below):




Canberra, with a population density of just 443.5 people per km squared, is heavily sprawled. This immense sprawl is an identified issue - it's not unknown. In fact, as outlined in Time to Talk's Canberra 2030 report, it is one of the major goals for Canberra to become "a compact city" with "integrated and sustainable transport" and "lower carbon emissions" (Canberra 2030 report, 2010). Yet it seems - with confirmation from Pilbrow, that physical development will begin in around 18 months time, that these direct goals will be completely ignored - hence my astonishment.

A new suburb on the existing urban fringe would not achieve a more "compact city" and would not result in an "integrated and sustainable transport" system with "lower carbon emissions". Residents of the proposed suburb would be encouraged to use private transport just as much as existing fringe suburbs due to continual lack of access to public transport. This would lead to compounding issues within the suburb and city including increased traffic congestion and noise.

Additionally, I believe the West Belconnen development would hinder Canberra's sustainability goals - also identified in Canberra 2030. The development would be bordered by two waterways - the Murrumbidgee River and Ginninderra Creek (as shown above). A stated vision of the development is "protecting the environment - including the protection and rehabilitation of the Murrumbidgee River and Ginninderra Creek". However, in my view, a new suburb adjacent to natural waterways would disrupt the natural marine ecosystems and cause major damage to environmental functioning.

If the board of the West Belconnen development is serious about "protecting the environment" I'd consider not directly digging it up and developing it.

That's my opinion, check out the West Belconnen devlopment website and see what you think here: http://talkwestbelconnen.com.au/


References:

Canberra 2030 report - http://timetotalk.act.gov.au/storage/78d10e40d957379825347909b6e2bfd9.Time%20to%20talk%20-%20web%20version.pdf

Demographics info -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canberra     

"Modernism and Early Urban Planning" - Richard T. LeGates and Fredric Stout (1998)

This following post will be a brief summary and review of "Modernism and Early Urban Planning" by Richard T. LeGates and Fredric Stout. The text covers all urban planning events and ideology spanning from 1870-1940.

The introduction to the text covers the main points which are to be explored in this quite informative chapter. Stated was the early efforts of urban planning, and to be expected, they were focused on traffic management as increased automobiles appeared on the increasingly urbanized cities' roads.While the chapter travels into the 20th Century and the depression era, it was identified that urban and regional planning's growth was stunted, however, it was this prompted the urban and regional planning profession to become more diversified. It spread into other areas such as construction, advocacy and transport at the national, state and local levels. The impact on the Industrial Revolution was also touched on and how it helped shape modern urban and regional planning.  

Starting chronologically, the ideology and movements in the 19th and 20th Centuries are reviewed:

1. The Parks Movement:
This movement was one of the first in response to industrial urbanism, with the aim of "providing the congested city with 'lung'". The first urban park, Birkenhead Park, was built in Liverpool in 1844, but undoubtedly the most famous urban park as it successfully acts as an "enhancement urban space by the intervention by the artfully designed nature" is New York's Central Park.

2. The Garden City ideal:
This movement was first introduced to not only improve the depleting health associated with the heavily polluted air in cities, but also to integrate the urban and rural and to act as an indicator of modern planning as a profession and body of theory. The original thoughts behind a Garden City was that it would consist of 1,000 acres of town surrounded by 5,000 acres of green-belt. This was planned and expected to house 32,000 people. Additionally, Garden Cities would be connected by rail and canal, while being economically self-sufficient. However, all these seemingly magical benefits of this movement came at was described as a "sound investment". The first official Garden City was Letchworth, London, which was built in 1909; the second Garden City was not built for another decade.

3. Urban Aestheticism and Beautiful City Movement:
This movement, beginning in the 1890s saw increased "adornment of cities with civic design, municipal art and 'The City Beautiful' supplanted parks and public health as the main focus of planners". With aesthetics high on the priority list, good design was imperative, this led to the inclusion of "magnificent boulevards and impressive public buildings" while placing emphasis on "city planning as a comprehensive and unified process".

4. 'Progressivism' and the city efficient
The concept of 'Progressivism' was associated with the new activist philosophy before and after WW1 often represented the middle class' social and economic interest. This the saw the rise of "new social and political ethos" leading to the City Beautiful and Urban Aesthetics concerns making way for an emphasis on city functioning efficiency.

5. The Master Plan
A man by the name of Edward Bassett introduced the concept of the 'Master Plan' which "sought to define what a general plan should contain and it's relation ship to the processes of city government." This introduction of comprehensive plans led to the "professionalisation of planning" and essentially acted as the launching pad of all future planning theory and practice.

New Towns and Regionalism
- The Regional Survey - Patrick Geddes
Patrick Geddes, as well as being a major player in creating Garden City planning as the mainstream urban planning practice, he proposed that before any changes could be made "a survey would place the city within the environmental context of its region's surrounding ecosystems".

- New Towns For America
The ideals of Lewis Mumford pointed directly toward some current planning features including decentralisation. Mumford saw transportation and communication technology as permits of decentralisation of a population industry. He also developed the vision of regional planning which shied away from sprawl and favored a "more human pattern of small cities"
This then progressed, under the ideals of Clearance Perry, to thinking about how city and suburban neighborhoods could function in the automobile age. Plans included the school as the centrepiece, use of culs-de-sacs and separated streets to "harmonise transportation with living space".

Prophets of High Modernism
- Utopia modernism

      Le Corbusier's vision
Le Corbusier focused on the issues our present day cities very much need and are working towards - being compact. He envisioned a city with "un-decorated skyscrapers, evenly spaced in a park" while simultaneously focusing on decongesting cities and housing 3 million people. Le Corbusier saw "the city as the administrative centre of bureaucratic, technocratic state".

     Frank Lloyd Wright's vision
Wright's vision contrasted heavily to Le Corbusier's, and is what we typically see in major cities and are trying to address. His vision embraced middle-class urban flight and vehicle-based urban sprawl. He proposed what was advertised in Australia as the "Great Australian Dream" - single detached dwellings on at least 1 acre with no large urban concentration what-so-ever. As we can clearly see today, this urban/suburban plan dominated planning into the future.

This informative chapter by LeGates and Stout is quite interesting, it shows that the changing philosophies and ideologies of key players throughout time had a great impact on the development of the urban and regional planning as a profession and basis of theory. These changing philosophies are also evident in modern cities today, and these have had positive and negative impacts on modern society.

"Fifty Theses on Urban Planning and Urban Planners" - Raphael Fischler (2012)

The following is a brief summary/analysis of Raphael Fischler's essay titled "Fifty Theses on Urban Planning and Urban Planners"

Fischler begins the essay and carries a common theme throughout, this is the fact that "urban planning as a field is ill defined in contents and in scope, and the public hardly knows what to expect of its practitioners". By doing this he is somewhat highlighting the broad and complex nature of the Urban Planning profession, but also possibly noting the potential difficulty he underwent when writing this paper.

The one introductory sentence, as stated above, creates the basis for many of Fischler's 50 theses. Fischler breaks his theses into six areas: General Thesis, the Meaning and Origins of Urban Planning, the Substance and uses of Urban Planning, on Good Planning and Good Plans, on Urban Planners and on Planning Education and Research.  

Fischler's General Thesis follows on nicely from his introductory statement. Here he explores the lengthy 18 contradictions, paradoxes and tensions involved in planning - including urban planning as a political activity and it as a technical activity, urban planning as a practical achievement or it as an ideological claim and urban planning as the exercise of power or it as a service to the powerful. These again highlights not only the profession's in depth complexity but the struggles planners face when defining their field.


Under the heading of 'Meaning and Origins of Urban Planning' the depth and evolution of planning is specified.

"5. Urban planning as a social activity has existed since cities have appeared... Urban planning as a professional activity originated in the industrial era

6. Modern urban planning is the progeny of a marriage between science and utopia"

With the field so subject to change and it evolving seemingly with the world - i.e. from industrialisation to the present social era - it seems as though it there's no wonder the profession is ill defined.

With the theme that planning is 'ill defined' with 'the public hardly knowing what to expect' it would make sense that the next section, 'the Substance and Uses of Urban Planning' covered a range of ideas. Guess what, that'd exactly what it does.
"11. Urban planning is a design activity
12. Urban planning is a political activity
14. It aims to increase freedom, but it interferes with individual liberties
15. Urban planning can be a force of good but also a force of evil"
All these points build to the generalised statement which can ultimately be used to sum up the entire essay - "16. Urban planning is a focused multidisciplinary field".

With all this in mind coming into the next sections 'Theses on Good Planning and Good Plans' and 'Theses on Urban Planners'  you may be excused to think good planning must be near impossible to achieve and good urban planners must be impossible to come by, however, Fischler explores the fact that good plans and good planners have a few basic characteristics. Good plans are ones that are effectively planned, have a clear goal, can be realistically achieved and are time effective. While good planners, although they play the roles of "architects, managers, mediators, advocates, educators and facilitators" are generally: critical thinkers, passionate people, respectful, transparent and effective communicators.

This leads to the final section labelled 'Theses on Planning Education and Research'. This quite predictably states that for more successful planners to be produced, like producing more successful anything, they need to be taught the skills and attributes young. Therefore planning specific schools and planning educations are most effective in gaining this goal.

In conclusion, the essay is an extremely comprehensive overview the theses of urban planning and planners, however it generally maintains a similar tone throughout communicating a general message - urban planning is a very complex and in depth profession and planners must be well trained and educated in order to succeed in the field.

This has been a general summary and analysis of Raphael Fischler's essay "Fifty Theses on Urban Planning and Urban Planners" - 2012 by Brad Maxwell, feel free to leave a comment and join the discussion!