Kristof Van Assche

Co-evolutions of planning and design: Risks and benefits of design perspectives in planning systems:

We develop an evolutionary perspective on spatial planning to investigate the potential contributions of design approaches to the coordination of spatial organization. After a re-articulation of the concepts of planning and design in this perspective, we distinguish six essential features of the planning/design dialectics in a community. These aspects ought to be understood when evaluating the risks and benefits of design perspectives in a planning system, and the potential for re-positioning design in planning. It is argued that relying on the rhetoric of any single actor or any single tradition of reflection on planning and design is deceptive, whereas the collective experience of learning and adaptation with actors and disciplines expands the scope of understanding and the pallet of possible adaptations.

Formal/Informal Dialectics and the Self-Transformation of Spatial Planning Systems An Exploration

In this article, we present a perspective on the interaction between formal and informal institutions in spatial planning in which they transform each other continuously, in processes that can be described and analyzed as ongoing reinterpretations. The effects of configurations and dialectics are often ambiguous, only partially observable, different in different domains and at different times. By means of analyses of key concepts in planning theory and practice, this perspective is illustrated and developed. Finally, we analyze transformation options in planning systems, emphasizing the limits of formal institutions in transforming formal/informal configurations, and stressing the importance of judgment and conflict.

Trading capitals? Bourdieu, land and water in rural Uzbekistan

In this paper, we use Pierre Bourdieus concepts of capitals and fields in the context of a transitional rural economy. We investigate ways to adopt these concepts for the study of land governance, in an attempt to gain new insights in post-socialist transition. By means of an in-depth study of land and water reform in two Uzbek villages, we reveal the intimate connections between access to water and access to land in the Uzbek rural economy, as well as the wide variety of strategies used by farmers to secure access to these resources. It is argued that the increased importance of the political field, in combination with its increased volatility and the dismantling of Soviet local governance, led to opacity in the conversion rates of capitals, to a bet on land as safe haven, and an ambiguous status of money.

From new towns to green politics. Campaigning for town and country planning, 1946–1990

also reveals bricks-and-mortar responses to sustainability issues in many twenty-first century metropolises. Those familiar with Friedman’s previous work will recognize his downsizing thesis. Town and Terraced Housing fits within a broader narrative of reducing suburban sprawl, redensifying urban centres, accepting the limitations of smaller home space, and above all, thinking critically about how to make metropolitan areas sustainable for the future. While Friedman focuses heavily on Western cities, the reader wonders how megacities, such as Beijing, Mumbai, or Sao Paulo, might look to townhouses as alternatives to towering apartment blocs or forceful slum clearances. The book will be of considerable interest to students and instructors of architecture, urban planning, history, sociology, and those who study how the built environment shapes and reflects human endeavour.