Alan March

Knowing and steering: Mediatization, planning and democracy in Victoria, Australia

Habermas suggests that democracy means that a society is able to know itself and steer itself. This article builds on Habermas’ conception that mediatization is a central impediment to the realization of democracy, while recognizing the locally particular resolution of democratic dilemmas represented by any planning system. Using Victoria, Australia as an example, the article seeks to demonstrate that Habermas’ project offers a means of critiquing existing planning systems. Rather than communicative planning remaining an unattainable ideal, the possibility is explored of Habermasian critique offering practical directions for enhancing the democracy of existing planning systems.

Practising theory: When theory affects urban planning

This article starts from the premise that, for all its diverse ideals and technical bases, the core of planning is an ability to favourably influence collective spatial concerns. The location of practice within spatial governance means that the ‘worth’ of planning theories often depends upon the nature of governance itself in given places and times. In this article, three layered vignettes of practice in Victoria, Australia are presented to demonstrate the importance of governance settings to the value and success of selected planning theories at different geographical and temporal scales. The vignettes examine: the introduction of new planning legislation in Victoria, Australia; the take-up of medium density housing; and the influence of communicative planning on participation. The article concludes that the effects of theory upon practice depend upon institutional circumstances, and that theory, and its users, must address this to be effective and to prevent unintended outcomes.

The Problem is the Solution: Testing Agonistic Theory's Potential to Recast Intractable Planning Disputes

Healthy community engagement must acknowledge conflict as a permanent and necessary part of collaborative planning. Using agonistic conflict in debating and deciding about site-specific projects and strategies offers new ways of reviewing and practising community engagement. Agonistic planning is conceived as a mechanism whereby interested parties might engage with planning decision-making that promotes on-going trust and buy-in for contested site-specific decisions and strategic directions. Disputes may produce opportunities for meaningful disagreement that may, if harnessed productively, avoid unproductive or even intractable disputes. Specifically, an agonistic approach offers an ability to modify and recast the initial ‘problems’ that urban projects are intended to address, and facilitates ‘better’ solutions sensitive to locally particular processes and contexts. The article tests key elements of agonistic theory using a high-profile planning dispute in Victoria, Australia. We show how an agonistic recasting of problems within legitimate planning processes is integral to meaningful engagement and progressive outcomes.

Land Use Planning and Bushfire Risk: CFA Referrals and the February 2009 Victorian Fire Area

The Victoria Planning Provisions (VPPs) include siting and design regulations incorporated into local government planning schemes to mitigate risk in areas prone to bushfires. Introduced in 1997, these provisions were previously called the Wildfire Management Overlay (WMO). Now updated and renamed the Bushfire Management Overlay (BMO), the provisions ongoing development has been informed by fire behaviour and how houses ignite. The aim of the research reported here, conducted following the catastrophic February 2009 Victorian fires, was to review dwelling losses in terms of the WMOs effectiveness. Empirical evidence compares house losses of dwellings referred to the Country Fire Authority (CFA) via the WMO, with overall house losses. The results suggest that proportionately fewer houses referred to the CFA were lost, compared with those not assessed under the WMO. It should be noted that other factors influenced the results, such as the houses assessed under the WMO being generally newer.

An urban form response to disaster vulnerability: Improving tsunami evacuation in Iquique, Chile

As urbanization gathers pace and climate change increases the number and magnitude of many natural hazards, cities are increasingly becoming hot spots for disasters. Although the role of appropriate urban forms in reducing disaster vulnerability has been recognized for some time, the majority of its potential remains focused on long-term mitigation efforts. In contrast, examination of the relationships with short-term disaster management activities such as response and immediate recovery has not been thoroughly conducted. This paper contributes to this shortfall by analysing a critical type of rapid onset disaster, a near-field tsunami, and the role of urban form in supporting the populations’ core response activities of evacuation and sheltering. The Chilean city of Iquique (affected by a severe earthquake and minor tsunami in 2014) is examined using a mixed methods approach that provides the basis for proposed macro-scale and micro-scale changes in its urban form; these modifications, in turn, are assessed with geographic information system (GIS) and agent-based computer models. The results show important existing evacuation vulnerability throughout major areas of the city (as the result of interrelated critical conditions), which nonetheless could be significantly reduced by the changes proposed. Further steps in this iterative process, in turn, could lead to the development of evacuation-based urban design standards capable of being transferred to different tsunami-prone contexts around the world.

Democratic dilemmas, planning and Ebenezer Howard's Garden City

It is widely acknowledged that Ebenezer Howards Garden City inspired many important urban planning achievements throughout the world. Using democratic dilemmas as a means of characterizing Garden City allows attention to be drawn to the political ‘work’ that this form of planning undertook. Examination of Garden Citys realization at Letchworth and its core democratic values reveals Howards prescient struggle with the central contradictions of democratic planning, illustrating the difficulties of achieving social goals in planning framed by liberal democracy. While significant gains were made in living conditions through the development of the Garden City, its realization through largely liberal‐based market mechanisms emphasized its physical virtues at the expense of its social goals.It is widely acknowledged that Ebenezer Howards Garden City inspired many important urban planning achievements throughout the world. Using democratic dilemmas as a means of characterizing Garden City allows attention to be drawn to the political ‘work’ that this form of planning undertook. Examination of Garden Citys realization at Letchworth and its core democratic values reveals Howards prescient struggle with the central contradictions of democratic planning, illustrating the difficulties of achieving social goals in planning framed by liberal democracy. While significant gains were made in living conditions through the development of the Garden City, its realization through largely liberal‐based market mechanisms emphasized its physical virtues at the expense of its social goals.

Parking availability influences on travel mode: Melbourne CBD offices

Abstract In Melbourne, Australia, there is currently interest in charging a levy on parking to reduce congestion and to encourage use of sustainable transport alternatives. This research aims to examine employees’ perceptions of their modal choice during journey to work, and considers the role of parking availability in modal choice, including whether people can be shifted to public transport. To investigate this, a survey was conducted in the CBD region of Melbourne consisting of 72 car and 91 public transport travellers. Fifty-three percent of car users said that they would not use cars if there were no parking, with 35% responding that they would shift to trains. The analysis suggests there is a link between reducing parking supply per employee, and promotion of sustainable travel modes. The results suggest a lack of understanding by policy makers about the wider effects of parking, with parking actions commonly contradicting achievement of wider transport and planning objectives for Melbourne. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that saving travel time, environmental issues and demographic changes all played a part in individual decisions to reduce car usage.

University curriculum development – stuck in a process and how to break free

Changes to governance and funding of universities have placed increasing importance on teaching quality. Curriculum development is central to teaching quality. Yet, as research has shown, it is rarely given priority in university departments. We sought to identify key barriers and facilitators of curriculum development in four professionally accredited master’s level degree programmes within the University of Melbourne, Australia. Our work progresses existing knowledge of curriculum development in three ways: (a) we provide a contemporary assessment of barriers and facilitators, (b) we gauge the views of administrative staff involved in curriculum development and find that they identify important process-oriented means for improvement and (c) we identify the facilitative role professional accreditation plays in curriculum development. A key barrier to curriculum development was found to be the existence of cumbersome, inflexible and lengthy administrative processes. However, we identify means by which these can be addressed, including the revision of long lead times for data provision required by the federal government.

Outward Views: Rights and Utility in Victorian State Planning

A long-standing urban planning maxim has been that there is no right to a view. However, the Victorian planning apparatus is increasingly admitting shared rights to outward views. This article explores this movement towards a procedural logic based upon inter-subjective and place-based understandings of rights and utility.

Accreditation of Australian urban planners: building knowledge and competence

Abstract There is an ongoing need to assess the relevance of current models of planning education. In light of changes to the accreditation of planners in Australia made in 2010, this paper critically examines whether the modifications are more suited to developing professional competence in graduates. We present a framework for critical appraisal of accredited professional degrees. This framework is based on theory that asserts the need for professionals to have both declarative (knowledge) and functional (competency) skills. Planning education accreditation standards for Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom are analysed and compared against this framework. Our findings indicate significant differences between the accreditation documents in the three countries. Additionally, our results indicate that the changes made to the Australian accreditation standards in 2010 have significantly improved its ability to guide the professional education of planners. We identify that further research is needed to measure the actual competence of graduates to determine appropriate standards and to verify existing competence.