Sophie Bond

Negotiating a ‘democratic ethos’ moving beyond the agonistic – communicative divide

Theories of urban democracy that are relevant, critical and take sufficient account of the pervasiveness of power continue to pose challenges. Two theoretical frameworks dominate in relation to planning and democracy – Habermasian-inspired communicative planning theory and Mouffe’s agonistic pluralism. Both theoretical frames are typically held to be incommensurable because of fundamental ontological and epistemological differences and the debate between proponents of each tends to be polemic. Both theories have complementary strengths and weaknesses in terms of the insights they are capable of providing. Moreover, the realities of urban governance situations often display characteristics that can be explained in terms of both theoretical framings. This article negotiates a path beyond the polemic debate. It problematizes both theoretical frameworks and negotiates a way forward for planning theory that co-opts the principles of one into a theoretical framework that assumes the ontological position of the other. In so doing the article proposes a two-pronged approach that provides a critical, adaptive and reflexive approach to inquiring into spaces of urban democracy.

‘Bouncing back’ to capitalism? Grass-roots autonomous activism in shaping discourses of resilience and transformation following disaster

Resilience has been criticised in many fields for focussing on attempts to bounce back or maintain the status quo following a disturbance. Such conceptualisations can uphold the hegemony of discourses of stability and are potentially unhelpful to groups seeking to achieve radical change. Despite this, the concept is fast subsuming sustainability as the latest catchphrase for community organisations wishing to address social and environmental injustices. Grass-roots groups are mobilising activism to shape this interpretation through post-capitalist visions – creating alternatives to dominant capitalist narratives in the present. This paper will discuss the expression of such radical notions of resilience through exploring how activism intersects with experiences of disaster. Through the case study of Project Lyttelton, a community organisation at the epicentre of the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake in Aotearoa, New Zealand, this research examines the potential for a radical notion of resilience to challenge hegemonic understandings of everyday capitalist life. By exploring this tension between resilience and post-capitalist activism, this paper contributes to an emerging area of critique through articulating a more nuanced understanding of the radical potential for what is often expressed as an inherently non-radical concept.

Public Participation and New Urbanism: A Conflicting Agenda?

The challenges to public participation in planning are numerous. Inclusive and equitable processes are recognised as an ideal in much planning theory and practice, yet this ideal is increasingly difficult to realise in todays societies that comprise diverse and multiple publics. Within the wider sustainability debate, “New Urbanism” has emerged as a pragmatic alternative to conventional low-density development. Concomitant with a range of prescribed physical outcomes, the New Urbanism movement advocates a process of “citizen-based participatory planning and design”. Charrettes, with urban design workshops, are the favoured tools for achieving this goal. However, it is argued that the adherence to a single type of participatory tool can be inconsistent with accepted ideals of participation processes and has several implications. Of particular concern is the role of the charrette planner or facilitator, a figure who has the potential to manipulate the public because of his/her inevitable allegiance to the New Urban agenda. In addition, the examination of a charrette process in a small New Zealand town raises several broader questions about the ability of the approach to address issues of inclusiveness and the recognition of difference, two fundamental elements of good participatory processes.

Urbanist intentions for the built landscape: examples of concept and practice in England, Canada and New Zealand

Abstract Shifts in developmental and environmental imperatives in the late 1980s and early 1990s have prompted concomitant reassessments of urban management practice. In this context, discourses advancing a ‘traditional’ form of urbanism have emerged as an alternative take on how to create the built landscape. The ideas promoted in the discourses have been quickly adopted internationally, and implemented in a myriad of urban development projects. However, it is the contention of this paper that such endorsement of urbanist principles has been hasty and uncritical. Through an exploration of the discourses of the Urban Villages Forum and the Congress for the New Urbanism and three concrete manifestations in Britain, Canada and New Zealand, this paper examines the implications of the production of urban form in the communication of meanings and social relations. The approach uses ‘landscape’ as an organising concept. It acknowledges the ideological foundations of urban transformation processes and the role that the built landscape has in signifying societal intentions. In addition, via the use of a detailed matrix, a comparison is provided of the urbanist criteria endorsed and applied by the two key movements and the three case studies. What the investigation highlights is that not only do urbanist discourses have a concern with fashioning physical environments, but they also attempt to procure specific social outcomes through the built form. Three principal arguments are made in the paper. Firstly, that urbanist conceptions and constructions in the built environment communicate a specific conservative social order. Secondly, that when embracing new paradigms the planning and development communities need to make themselves aware of the intrinsic implications and complex ideological enterprises associated with them. Finally, that a critical landscape approach is a powerful tool for unveiling the foundations of newly emerging planning visions. This paper should be of interest to academics in planning, urban design and geography. It combines an assessment of popular planning and design ideology within a critical geography framework. The evaluation of contemporary practice should also appeal to planning and urban design practitioners. In addition, the diverse locations and contexts of the case study examples will find some connection with readers from a wide variety of situations.

The Possibilities of a Politics of Place Beyond Place? A Conversation with Doreen Massey

Abstract What follows is the edited and footnoted transcript of a conversation between Doreen Massey, recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from University of Glasgow in July 2009, and the Human Geography Research Group in the Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, to mark this occasion. Themes explored include Doreen Masseys early work and influences ranging from geology to Marxism and feminism; recent political engagements in Venezuela; the politics of place beyond place; climate change and transnational solidarities; and ‘being’ political and an academic in the current conjuncture.

Being in Myth and Community: Resistance, Lived Existence, and Democracy in a North England Mill Town

‘Community’ has long been critiqued in academic circles as a social construct with the potential to subsume and exclude individuals under a determination of collectivity. In contrast, community continues to be posed as an ideal in urban policy, particularly in the United Kingdom. In this paper I employ Jean-Luc Nancys thinking of community as myth and as existential being to interrogate the thorny issue of how community is constructed and the effects of those constructions on being and living in a place. I explore the constitution of collectivities and their interruption by lived existence in an urban regeneration project in north England, where a proposal to demolish and renew housing was contested by local residents. I argue that a Nancian lens provides a nuanced view of how myth and being are entangled and requires one another to ensure a vibrant democratic politics rested on an openness to alterity.

Legitimising activism in democracy: A place for antagonism in environmental governance

Despite the appearance of a range of opportunities for formal participation in environmental decision-making in Aotearoa New Zealand, postpolitics is very much present, annulling dissent, upholding dominant neoliberal ideals and delegitimising other voices. Through our analysis of a consent decision about a proposed coal mine on the West Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand and the experiences of opposing environmentalists, we offer empirical evidence that illustrates the fluid shifts between antagonism and agonism (after Mouffe) throughout this ‘democratic’ process. We argue that while aspirations for agonism should remain, it is important that planning theory pays attention to the role that power and hegemony play in what could otherwise be considered agonistic planning. Antagonism, the undesirable in Mouffe’s radical democracy, has a critical role in neoliberal contexts, rupturing postpolitics and creating spaces of dissent so that agonistic contestation can provide for robust and rigorous debate in environmental decision-making.

‘It’s who we are’: eco-nationalism and place in contesting deep-sea oil in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT Given near consensus among the scientific community about the anthropogenic nature of climate change, there is pressing concern about how to mobilise enough people to care and demand wider socio-political change. In this article we explore this urgent issue, drawing on recent conflicts over deep-sea oil exploration and drilling in Aotearoa New Zealand. We explore how some activist groups are attempting to mobilise care and concern around deep-sea oil drilling and climate change through the use of narratives that entwine aspects of national identity with the non-human world. We suggest that these activist groups are not concerned about a retreat of the state, but rather, are in direct conflict with the state, and state interventionism, over fossil fuel development trajectories in Aotearoa New Zealand. In drawing upon eco-nationalism, and particularly a way of life related to place, activists have called into question the common sense of business as usual and thereby sought to expand space for ‘ordinary’ Aotearoa New Zealanders to care about climate change.

Shifting relationships to place: a relational place-based perspective on SES resilience

ABSTRACT Disasters literally and figuratively shake the foundations of place in a community. If place is seen as both a construction of and contributor to identity, then the impact of disasters can result in not only physical displacement but can also fundamentally displace community and individual identity. Despite this, resilience theory, a widely used approach for dealing with disaster, provides little empirical or theoretical background on the role of place in shaping response and recovery from disruption. On 22 February 2011, the ground beneath the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, shook, destabilizing the physical and psychological landscape and displacing the foundations of place identity for many communities. Through the case study of Project Lyttelton, a grassroots community organization close to the epicenter of the 22 February earthquake, this paper seeks to understand and explore the nuances of place and identity, and its role in shaping resilience to such displacing events. We argue that place is an integral component of social systems that requires consideration within resilience frameworks in order for social factors to be properly integrated. From this, we make the case for increased awareness of the connections between these processes and the related consequences for post-disaster realities at both the community and policy level.

Contested water, contested development: unpacking the hydro-social cycle of the Ñuble River, Chile

Abstract The way that water is entangled with broader social relations has become a prominent concern in political ecology, geography and beyond. Employing the concept of the hydro-social cycle highlights how water is produced by, and simultaneously constitutes, social and power relations. Applying and expanding the hydro-social cycle as an analytical lens, this paper explores the contestation of different discourses of water. Looking at the conflict over the construction of a proposed dam in Chile, we examine different meanings given to water to understand how these produce uneven power relations with material and symbolic implications. By teasing out the workings and contestations of this conflict as a hydro-social cycle, we aim to highlight the diverse range of elements enlisted in it beyond water, to expose its complexity and to search for more just and inclusive alternatives.