James M. Mayo

EFFECTS OF STREET FORMS ON SUBURBAN NEIGHBORING BEHAVIOR

This study is an investigation of the possible effects of linear, curvilinear, and cul-de-sac street-form configurations on suburban neighboring behavior. Based upon a sample survey of single-family household residents in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the findings showed that street design was not influential in predicting neighboring relations as compared to social variables. Number of children living at home, length of residence, and job status of the woman of the household were found to be significant indicators for familiarity and participation among neighbors. Results suggest the importance of familism in determining suburban neighboring behavior rather than possible spatial manipulations of street forms in site planning.

Learning Expectations in Environmental Planning Predictions and Interpretations

Most graduate planning programs offer a specialization in environmental planning, yet there has been little recent discussion of environmental planning pedagogy. This article draws on the results of a survey of planning educators to determine trends and patterns in environmental planning curricula. It develops an explanatory model for predicting the learning expectations for various types of knowledge that are part of environmental planning education in U.S. and Canadian planning programs. This model uses individual, organizational, and curricular characteristics to predict the substantive environmental planning topics taught in graduate planning programs.

Environmental Education in Graduate Professional Degrees: The Case of Urban Planning

Environmental education (EE) is a prominent aspect of graduate-level masters programs in urban and regional planning. This article draws on the results of a survey of 66 environmental planning educators in urban and regional planning programs to show what types of EE are most prevalent in these graduate professional programs and in planning practice. The authors examine the relative importance of foundational and applied knowledge topics in both masters-level planning education and in seeking employment in the field of environmental planning. Environmental planning educators generally believe that applied knowledge topics are more important than foundational topics for students.

The American Public Market

The design of public markets in the United States was shaped by the political-economic forces of municipal controls and private enterprise. As cities developed, open markets were eventually replaced by architectural structures located in the street. Traffic congestion increased in American cities, and markets were eventually relocated on the block, with architectural changes resulting from this move. The public market was also shaped internally by the business activities of stall merchants, and as the twentieth century emerged, privately owned markets were built that began to change the nature of labor relations within the market. The rise of the grocery store led to the markets demise. Municipalities abandoned the public market as tax revenues fell, and private entrepreneurs faced great difficulties in competing with grocery stores that were operating under a system of mass distribution. Today, the public market is perceived as a viable cultural function, but without the political-economic viability of ...

The Manifestation of Politics in Architectural Practice

There is an underlying theoretical structure between the spheres of politics and architectural practice. The contingent relationships between them are ideology, function, process, and design. In each of these contingencies, there are middle-range theoretical dimensions that relate more directly to the architects practice world. In this article, I present empirical cases to map the terrain between politics and architectural practice. A general causal model interrelates these four primary contingencies and identifies their structural relationships.

Capitalist dynamics and New Urbanist principles: junctures and disjunctures in project development

Both conservatives and liberals have criticized the New Urbanist movement with respect to its built outcomes and underlying theory. Conservatives admit that New Urbanism represents a particular market segment, but contend that most Americans prefer the traditional auto‐oriented suburb. Many critics on the left argue that New Urbanism is a false hope for improving urban life because it is limited to physical design, deals inadequately with issues of social justice and political economy, and is easily appropriated by the real estate industry as just another consumer product. The existing literature offers little systematic discussion of how the capitalist system matches up with New Urbanist principles and practices. This paper explores this issue by creating a framework for understanding the intersection of the three circuits of capital – finance capital, fixed capital, and research and technology capital – with three key New Urbanist principles – design fit; sustainability; and a composite principle encompassing civility, diversity, and equity. Given the three circuits of capital and the three design principles, there are nine points of interaction between New Urbanism and capitalism. Rather than taking capitalist principles for granted when evaluating the challenges facing New Urbanism, the authors use a critical perspective of this economic system. The conclusion suggests some changes in finance, regulation, politics, and design philosophy that may be needed before the full benefits of New Urbanism can be realized.

Critical Reasoning for an Enlightened Architectural Practice

The capitalist political economy plays a crucial role in shaping the built environment and how architects practice. Capitalist aims are often antagonistic to principles of good architectural practice and, as a result, the desires of practitioners to provide good architecture are colonized and politically debilitated. Architects who use social processes embedded with critical reasoning are more able to empower themselves politically. They are in a better position to design buildings that respond to human needs rather than being antagonistic to such needs. To prepare architects for such practice, more attention is needed in preparing students to think critically during their architectural education.

Job Attainment in Planning Women Versus Men

This study demonstrates that women in public planning agencies have not been fully integrated into professional practice. Criteria for gaining access to higher job positions for women and men are similar. However, men tend to have more qualifications than women, and they have higher job positions. For women, centralization of management is particularly important for obtaining higher job positions. The criteria for obtaining more income are essentially the same for women and men despite the fact that women make less income. Because women have not been fully integrated into the planning profession, they do not fulfill job criteria as well as men.

Commemorating God and Country in American War Memorials: Symbolic Evolution and Legality

Throughout the course of U.S. history, religious symbolism has played a role in memorials. This symbolism reached its height after World War I, and continues today. Since the last half of the 20th-century, legal cases have challenged religious symbolism in memorials on public or government property. The courts have developed legal tests to evaluate the use of this symbolism in war memorials. First, this study used historical analyses to examine how religious symbolism has been explicitly expressed in American war memorials. Second, legal analyses were applied to key cases involving conflicts between church and state, and memorials. Whereas past legal judgments focused on a memorial’s symbols, recent legal judgments included an evaluation of the environmental setting in which such religious symbols and memorials were placed. Thus, memorial designers must consider not only how they introduce symbolism into a memorial’s design, but also how their site designs involve potential religious symbolism.

Reviews : Critical Theory, Public Policy, and Planning Practice: Toward a Critical Pragmatism John Forester State University of New York Press, Albany, 1993 214 pages.

which extracts ideology that gives claim to these interests but represses them. John Forester’s latest book is part of his continued effort to apply the aims of critical theory to the planning field. A compilation of previously published work, Forester provides us with fewer case examples related to city planning than in his previous books. However, Critical Theory, Public Policy, and Planning Practice: Toward a Critical Pragmatism gives a deeper discussion of the relationship between critical theory and planning than he has offered in the past. It is a discussion that some planning academicians have wanted from him. To be blunt, John Forester offers us an excellent book. He knows his