Volume 5 / Issue 1 and 2 / (2021)
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Item Open Access The impact of actor-relational dynamics on integrated planning practice(AESOP, 2021) Eräranta, Susa; Mladenović, Miloš N.Integrated planning processes involve an increasing number of actors and aim to create synergy between multiple knowledges in communicative settings. Planning research has acknowledged that the actor-relational aspects of planning processes are not yet adequately understood, and that methods to reveal the often-invisible dynamics and their possible effects over time require development. This research aims at developing a methodological contribution for revealing the socio-communicative complexities of integrated planning processes, by focusing on the aspects of knowledge co-creation and process memory development. Actor-relational dynamics are explored through social network analysis and qualitative methods, using longitudinal data from a four-year strategic spatial planning process in the Finnish context. The findings indicate that a range of actor-relational dynamics affect the level of sectoral and scalar integration over time, and that social complexities have an essential role in enabling knowledge co-creation and process memory development. Unveiling actor-relational dynamics is a promising research direction, requiring new methods for bridging research and practice, and re-centring the need for understanding planning practice on the actor-relational level.Item Open Access Facilitating the Smooth Transition of Second-Year XJTLU Students into Planning Programmes at the University Of Liverpool: Results and Reflections from an Ongoing Series of Interventions(AESOP, 2021) Dockerill, Bertie; Mell, İan; Nurse, AlexIncreasingly internationalised student cohorts within planning schools offer opportunities to enhance existent student learning, but may also present potential issues, such as language difficulties, cultural disorientation, and the need to assimilate learning styles, internationalise curricula, and varying pedagogic teaching styles, all of which can impact staffing and costs. In 2016 the Department of Planning and Geography at the University of Liverpool obtained a Learning & Teaching (T&L) Award to develop projects examining the potential for a more meaningful learning experience for undergraduate students transitioning to Liverpool from XJTLU – the university’s sister institution in Suzhou, China. This intervention primarily sought to promote complementary understanding of British and Chinese planning at XJTLU and UoL to facilitate improved academic attainment for XJTLU students completing their studies in Liverpool. Evaluating those aspects of the intervention focused on additional contact and one-to-one guidance for students, this paper reflects on this project and develops recommendations on managing the process of student transfer as well as ensuring that the planning discipline integrates “soft skills” more effectively in its teaching.Item Open Access Embedding Landscape in the Education of Young Planners(AESOP, 2021) Ray, KarenUnderstanding the relationships between a development and its wider setting is not new to planning. This often delicate balance has been contemplated by planners since well before the ground-breaking European Landscape Convention emerged in 2000. Nevertheless, and in the sustainable management of change, the ELC and its interpretations in domestic laws serve as conscious reminders of landscape as being more value-laden and complex than mere scenery. They support arguments for why meaningful engagement must and should be done - arguments that are most compelling during the education of young planners. In a world where rapid environmental change leads to more deadlines for decision-makers, and in which approaches to prescriptive environmental standards can result in mediocre compliance, it might seem idealistic to expect engagement with landscape in this way. Sharing experiences from University College Cork, this paper explores methods for equipping students with the skills necessary to make efficient and objective yet value-sensitive judgements on landscape at strategic and project levels.Item Open Access The International Cooperation in Planning Studio as a Pedagogical Approach: Experiences from Grenoble & Sfax(AESOP, 2021) Roux, Jean-MichelIn 2012, an international planning studio was organized by the Urban Planning Institute of Grenoble (France) at Sfax (Tunisia). What could have been a one-off project evolved into a long-term cooperation between French and Tunisian partners. The international cooperation in urbanism studio is now the focus of the teaching approach in both years of the Urbanism and International Cooperation master’s programme. This paper firstly considers the theoretical and practical contexts in which these studios developed. It then goes on to explore the planning concepts on which they are built. The main pedagogical characteristics are then drawn out. Finally, the lessons which can be learned from this experience and the potential for these to be applied elsewhere are evaluated.Item Open Access New relational understandings of city building: Reading the city through dynamic landscapes of spatial governance(AESOP, 2021) Tasan-Kok, TunaIn this think piece I will take you on a journey to share my approach to reading contemporary city building, which is increasingly chaotic, fragmented, and complex. Spatial governance, in my understanding, refers to the collective efforts to coordinate and structure the dynamic institutional activities of a variety of actors that aim to organise the built environment. Urban planning is one of these efforts, though not the only one. Therefore, in this article, I will visualise spatial governance as a dynamic landscape which accommodates multi-actor, multi-scalar, multi-loci and multi-temporal regulatory activities related to the uncertainties, opportunities, and crises of the market. Reading dynamic landscapes of spatial governance requires an understanding of regulatory efforts as they refer to the relational behaviour of state, market, and community actors. This approach, to linking regulatory efforts to relational behaviour, in my view, gives us new opportunities to provide comprehensive understandings of how cities develop under market-driven conditions.Item Open Access Higher Education Futures? Reflections on Covid-19, Digitalization, and Gen Z Expectations(AESOP, 2021) Frank, AndreaPredicting the future is a difficult and inexact business and, generally, humans are more prone to focus on immediate problems and short-term problem-solving rather than long-range planning. In fact, long-range forecasts are tricky and often rendered wrong due to catalytic events. The dramatic changes in teaching, learning, and conducting research that have seemingly catapulted Higher Education (HE) institutions into a new modus operandi over the past 24 months are a case in point. Who would have predicted that higher education would be conducted by a great many institutions almost entirely virtually and over sustained amounts of time? That academics would teach from their homes lecturing to a screen of black boxes and images? That students would do fieldwork virtually via video, embedded questions and tasks, and that the practice of research teams discussing progress and findings in person would practically vanish?Item Open Access Editorial - Volume 5 / Issue 2 / (2020): Changing Contexts for Planning Education(AESOP, 2021) Sykes, OlivierThis issue (5.2) of Transactions of AESOP brings together a selection of papers which address current themes and issues in planning education. Two of the papers reflect on the experience of teaching modules submitted to recent rounds of the AESOP Excellence in Teaching Award (ETA), one reports on an experience of internationalisation in planning education, and one is an invited paper by Andrea Frank the present Chair of the AESOP ETA Committee. They all provide original and insightful contributions addressing key themes in contemporary planning education including, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, new technologies and modes of teaching delivery, the teaching of landscape in planning programmes, and, the internationalisation of planning cohorts and curricula.Item Open Access Editorial - Volume 5 / Issue 1 / June 2021(AESOP, 2021) Sykes, OlivierThis issue (5.1) of Transactions of AESOP brings together a selection of papers submitted to recent rounds of the Best AESOP Congress Paper Award and an invited paper by Tuna Taşan-Kok the Chair of the AESOP Congress Paper Award Committee. They provide original and insightful contributions addressing key themes in contemporary planning research and practice.Item Open Access The circular economy in urban projects: A case study analysis of current practices and tools(AESOP, 2021) Appendino, Federica; Roux, Charlotte; Saadé, Myriam; Peuportier, BrunoOver the last decade, the concept of the circular economy (CE) has gained momentum among practitioners, politicians, and scholars because of its promise of achieving sustainability goals. However, there is still a need to demonstrate and assess the positive environmental impacts of the CE. With respect to the building sector, the CE is still a relatively new topic. To date, research has tended to focus primarily on the macro-scale (cities or eco-parks) and the micro-scale (manufactured products or construction materials). Nevertheless, the often-neglected built environment is also expected to play a crucial role in the transition towards a CE due to its high contribution to various environmental burdens. This paper contributes to this growing area of research by reviewing four cases of ‘circular neighbourhood’ projects in Europe. First, a conceptual framework analysis is defined and applied to the cases. Second, CE initiatives and actions are identified and classified using interviews and document analysis. Third, the use of assessment tools within these CE projects is investigated. The results demonstrate a diverse representation of the CE paradigm and the growing role played by the assessment tools.Item Open Access Imagining the City of Tomorrow Through Foresight and Innovative Design: Towards the Regeneration of Urban Planning Routines?(AESOP, 2021) Lavoie, Nicolas; Abrassart, Christophe; Scherrer, FranckEcological and digital transitions alongside concerns over social inequalities have signalled the advent of complex new challenges for contemporary cities. These challenges raise issues pertaining to the dynamic capability of urban planners: more specifically, their ability to revise their tools and planning routines in urban projects. New paradigms of collective action for the transition towards innovative cities have been developed in large organisations. European companies, especially in public transportation, have developed such tools based on innovative design theories. One of these methodological tools, the Definition-Knowledge-Concept-Proposition (DKCP) process, was used to generate a new range of planning options for an urban district in Montreal, Canada. For many municipal organisations, the formulation of innovative ideas only concerns one stage of the process, represented by the ‘P’ phase. However, innovative routines should rather include the earlier phases of identifying the scope of possible innovations, the search for intriguing knowledge and disruptive design activities. The desire to tackle the complex challenges of 21st century cities has led to a new professional identity: the ‘innovative urban planner’.Item Open Access City-county consolidation and the (re)conceptualisation of urban-rural planning: A comparative study of Taichung city and Tainan city, Taiwan(AESOP, 2021) Huang, Wei-JuThe Taiwanese central government views city-county consolidations as an effective method to strengthen national competitiveness and to balance regional development. But for local governments, consolidation presents a series of planning challenges, especially in relation to the reconstruction of planning concepts and discourses in their new territories. Aiming to understand the process, this study first proposes a typology of regional planning concepts as a conceptual tool to explore whether and how the consolidated governments (re)construct their urban-rural planning concepts, and then it examines the factors that may influence (re)conceptualisation through a comparative study of Taichung City and Tainan City. The research results show that overemphasis on using the concept of competitive city regionalism to balance regional development at the national level may lead to a widening of rural-urban disparities at regional and local levels.Item Open Access Emerging Places of Social Innovation (POSI): A conceptual framework for social innovation in cities(AESOP, 2021) Ardill, NicholasSocial innovation is recurrently positioned as an important collaborative element in helping cities to transition and address human needs and societal challenges to enhance the health, wellbeing, and welfare of citizens. To address a call for more sector-specific research on the spatiality of social innovation, and also further understanding of the process dimension of social innovation, this article presents a conceptual framework of the process of social innovation. By combining social innovation insight from process theories and urban spaces discourse the article indicates that of social innovation in the co-production of space can be grouped into four major processes: 1) Identification of human needs or societal challenges to sustainable development; 2) Development of social relations in systems or structures; 3) Provision of opportunity for social empowerment; 4) Reflection of socio-spatial development practice. Applying this framework, the article examines how productive green infrastructure emerges in the urban landscape as a Place of Social Innovation (POSI).