Luuk Boelens

Self-organization in urban development: towards a new perspective on spatial planning

To date, participatory spatial planning has produced disappointing results. We argue that one reason is that time and again participatory planning proposals remain controlled by public government, and that public government seems not to be very adaptive to initiatives that emerge from the dynamics of civil society itself. To find out why and how citizens could and would be motivated to contribute out of their own motivation to urban development, we propose turning the focus outside-in, instead of inside-out. In this article, we therefore introduce the notion of self-organization, referring to initiatives that originate in civil society itself, via autonomous community-based networks of citizens outside government control which participate in developing the ‘urban fabric’ too. We discuss some examples of self-organization and draw preliminary conclusions of the concepts usefulness for the theory and practice of spatial planning.

Theorizing Practice and Practising Theory: Outlines for an Actor-Relational-Approach in Planning

Not only in the Netherlands, but also elsewhere, there is stalemate between modern and postmodern/post-structural planning, or alternatively, between state-controlled and neo-liberal planning. Since the 1980s at least, modernist, state-controlled planning has been fundamentally debunked as a highly regulatory and prescriptive operation, resulting in syrupy planning processes, which are very costly, inflexible and inefficient, and suppressing all new and creative initiatives that do not fit within the set framework. Postmodern and post-structural alternatives developed since then have been very effective in counter-attacking the alleged virtues of that planning strategy, but less fruitful at promoting effective and/or sustainable practices. The article assumes that this is related to the fact that time and again these alternatives continue to be formulated from within the existing planning framework, from a specific governmental, or at least a government influenced, view of planning: in essence from the inside-out. From this position, the article goes on to describe the possible outlines for a practical outside-inward, actor-relational-approach. It has been developed from experimental case studies in concrete planning practices, for example, a case study in Southern Limburg in the Netherlands. Concurrently, it has also been derived from a fundamental interaction with behavioural, urban regime and actor-network/network actor theories, with an extensive evaluation of the latter. The article concludes with a call for a new fundamental, but proactive, reassembling of spatial planning in an actor-oriented, as opposed to a government-oriented, way.

Planning of undefined becoming: First encounters of planners beyond the plan

Since the 1980s and due to the ongoing complexity and diffuseness of global networked societies, planners have tried to move beyond classic technocratic and/or sociocratic ideas of planning towards new approaches, which address the multiplicity and fuzziness of our perceptions and actions in time and space. Innovative ideas have been developed concerning discursive, collaborative, informal and post-policy planning, as well as relational geography, multi-planar, non-linear and actor-relational approaches. Nonetheless, techno- and sociocratic approaches remain dominant conceptions for much teaching and practice in Europe and elsewhere. This is partly because these innovative contributions of the past 20 or 30 years have been fragmented and isolated. However, they can also be regarded as the beginning of a bigger transition towards what we call a movement of ‘planning of undefined becoming’. In this article, we will sketch a framework in which these innovative ideas about the planner’s perceptions of fuzzy, complex and co-evolving space and time will in some way be interrelated. From this background, we will also critically reflect on some planning experiments in practice inspired reciprocally and incrementally by these ideas, developing applications for practitioners along the way.

Beyond the Plan; Towards a New Kind of Planning

Abstract Although recently much has been done to improve planning both operationally and practically, spatial planning and urbanism are still dictated by the old Cartesian way of approaching the world. Reality however has taken on an enormous flux. Next to the space of places, we need to deal with the space of flows too. Next to economic global dimensions, we also need to deal with social, cultural and political fragmentation and reclustering processes on a local level in several ways. In this article, initial arguments are given on how planners and urbanists could possibly deal with these ongoing multi-dimensional worlds in space and time: fluviology. It is a plea for a more actor-oriented approach in efficient networks of surprising reciprocal fragments of mutual interest, for more consistant interchange between theory and practice and for associative democracy beyond the plan. The article is therefore accompanied by a few recent planning examples and planning experiments in the Netherlands.

Environmental health in the complex city: a co-evolutionary approach

While public health and urban planning were closely linked in the past, today both domains are institutionally separate. In most cases, health intersects with spatial planning processes only through obligatory evaluations, such as environmental impact assessments, or restrictive environmental legislation. This institutionalisation of health criteria in most western countries has difficulty in dealing with recent environmental health challenges, leading to continual distrust and conflict between citizens and the government. This impasse has recently been discussed by academics who acknowledge the complexity of both city and health issues. It seems, however, that the full extent of the issue has not been covered yet, leading to recommendations and frameworks that are useful but fixed and retrospective. This paper moves beyond those fixed frameworks to develop a better understanding of the complexity of the current disconnect and explores ideas for a future planning approach, grounded on new ideas of co-evolutionary and adaptive planning.

Beyond the divide: evaluation in co-evolutionary spatial planning

ABSTRACT Spatial developments are becoming increasingly a-linear and dynamic with a wide range of possible actors. The awareness of uncertainty is growing and, therefore, projects need to integrate a high level of flexibility. But simultaneously, there is a growing demand for more informed and well-argued decisions. Predictions from the ‘best estimated model’ are no longer credible nor accepted, being too fragile and uncertain. How can we keep long-lasting, multi-actor projects in permanent transition on track? This expresses an important demand for more integrated evaluation in spatial planning. In this respect, this paper analyses existing theoretical evaluation strategies and how these strategies deal with spatial developments. They are still usually structured along static, generic and circular approaches; in fact, many neglect the dynamic, plural and a-linear realities. Therefore, this paper develops a post-structural evaluation approach for various planning issues and different playing fields of actors, followed by an illustration of the various settings for this approach in a Flemish case. Finally, we discuss how spatial planning and future plans might be evaluated with a dissipative role for evaluation.

Unravelling the Flemish Mobility Orgware: the transition towards a sustainable mobility from an actor-network perspective

ABSTRACT Large mobility projects in Flanders end up in wicked problems. In the quest for efficient and sustainable mobility, the Flemish government becomes entangled in endless struggles between ever more involved and changing stake- and shareholders. The role and effectiveness of the government is exposed to rising challenges from inside and outside. Since most new projects focus on infrastructural (hardware) or (socio-)technical innovations in the use of mobile means (software), innovations within the organizational structure of mobility (‘orgware’) have mostly remained untouched. We address this hiatus by approaching mobility projects as complex adaptive systems, comprising various, dynamic actor-networks. Following actor-networks through space and time is necessary to obtain an idea of the upcoming, and leading associations of various mobility actors, that are decisive for the success, failure and efficiency of mobility projects. To grasp these complex challenges, one needs to unravel the orgware and identify the potentials of the mobility systems regarding the travel, transport and traffic mobility arenas. We draw upon a combination of actor-network theory and institutional theory insights applied to conceptual mobility frameworks. The resulting research framework for the Flemish mobility orgware will be first applied to the Oosterweel link case in Antwerp.

Fuzzy tales for hard blueprints: the selective coproduction of the Spatial Policy Plan for Flanders, Belgium

Planners become increasingly aware that they operate in a fuzzy, fragmented, volatile, and unpredictable world. For a couple of decennia they have tried to find new answers in a communicative turn, in collaborative or in coproductive planning. However, because of the ongoing fragmentations and complexities, such attempts have shown to be so time-consuming, vague, or framed by the regular suspects of planning that they hardly meet todays major challenges. We will demonstrate this by means of the planning process for the forthcoming Spatial Policy Plan for Flanders, the successor of the Spatial Structure Plan for Flanders—a strategic plan on which the literature has extensively reported. In 1997 this latter plan was endorsed and accepted by most of the authorities concerned. More than fifteen years later, however, original commitments have eroded, and the ongoing process leading to the adoption of the new plan has failed to build broad support and credibility. Therefore, the new Spatial Policy Plan has turned to the promises of coproductive planning in order to include citizens and interest groups in the planning process. However, we will argue that in Flanders today this borrowed methodology of coproductive planning is insufficiently adapted to the Flemish context and is therefore mainly delivering an aura of optimism about sustainability to ongoing policies, while a variety of spatial developments that are recognized as very substantive or problematic are kept outside the process. To overcome this, we will finally discuss a preliminary design of a more contextualized process model, putting the stress on more concrete planning issues, involving independent stakeholders in strategic alliances, and taking a coevolutionary approach from the start.

Actor-Relational Planning in Deprived Areas: Challenges and Opportunities in Luchtbal Antwerpen, Belgium

In this article, we report and discuss our experience with actor-relational approaches (ARA) in the regeneration of a postwar housing estate in Luchtbal, Antwerp, Belgium. ARA are informed by post-structuralist ideas of space, complexity theory, and actor network theory. Although ARA itself is not new, the application of ARA to deprived areas such as Luchtbal is novel. We report how the approach has been elaborated, its process and outcome. We conclude with our evaluation from an insiders perspective.

Reflections on Yvonne Rydin's response to 'Theorizing practice and practising theory'.

I am most grateful to Yvonne Rydin for her response on my modest contribution to planning theory from a practitioner’s point of view. Her response includes a host of new insights reflecting on the key issues of concern...