1987 Inaugural congress of the Association of European Schools of Planning, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 19 - 21 November
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Item Restricted Introduction - founding conference of AESOP in Amsterdam(Springer, 1987) Faludi, AndreasAs part of its 25th anniversary-celebrations, the Institute for Planning and Demography of the University of Amsterdam hosted the Founding Conference of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) on 19th to 21st November, 1987. The holding of this conference is a sure sign that European planning education has come of age. In the recent past we have witnessed a trend towards independent programmes. But many differences remain, and institutional, cultural and linguistic boundaries hamper a continuous flow of exchange between those with a professional concern for planning education. The Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) aims to im- prove this situation. In taking the initiative, the founding committee has drawn inspiration from the example set by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) in North America. Thus, AESOP will be a plat- form for exchanges and a focus for joint action in the field of European planning education. Also, it will provide mutual support to its members. The conference discussed how to achieve these aims. Also, an immediate start was made with productive exchanges. To introduce the almost one hundred planning educators to the local situation, planning problems of Amsterdam were discussed. The main educational papers were: "The Evolution of Planning Education in Europe" (A. Rodriguez-Bachiller, Senior Lecturer, Oxford); "The Changing Context of Planning Education and Research: An American Perspective" (Professor E.R. Alexander, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee); "Dutch Planning Education: where it is now and how it got there" (Dr. Barrie Needham, Senior Lecturer, Catholic University of Nijmegen); and "Dutch planning education in its international context (Professor A. Faludi, University of Amsterdam). Workshops concerned topics like: "New jobs for planners? The job market" (Convenor Professor L. Albrechts, University of Louvain, Louvain); "Planning fashions. How to respond in planning education and research" (Convenor Professor B. Marchand, University of Paris VIII); "Are we fair to overseas students?" (Convenor Professor Klaus R. Kunzmann, University of Dortmund); "Research education and training: The lonely PhD student?" (Convenor Professor P. Healey, University of Newcastle); "Post-modern planning: Retreat to urban design?" (Convenor: Professor D. Frick, Berlin University of Technology); "For which future do we educate planners?" (Convenor Professor W. Schmid, Zurich University of Technology). Practical issues like the ERASMUS arrangements, a newsletter, the 1988 conference (due to be held at the University of Dortmund), a directory of planning schools and research were also discussed. The papers below are the two Dutch presentations. Both authors have been involved in planning education abroad. Barrie Needham has lectured at various English planning schools, in particular at the University of Aston at Birmingham. He is a one-time president of the Education for Planning Association. Andreas Faludi, too, has lectured in England, at the Oxford Polytechnic, before coming to the Netherlands where he has devoted his Delft inaugural lecture to the topic of "Planning theory and the education of planners".Item Open Access Reality, from the Netherlands to Torquay united(Cliff Hague (blog), 1987) Hague, CliffSunday Amsterdam. I came here last Thursday for the inaugural congress of the Association of European Schools of Planning. It has rained non-stop. Having been born and bred in Manchester, swaddled in a sou'wester and plastic mac, I have a particular aversion to foreign rain. Not out of chauvinism; Amsterdam's rain matches Salford's best concoctions in intensity, variety and wetness. Quite simply, when I go abroad, I expect the sun to shine, even at this time of year. When it doesn’t, I feel cheated, not elated, by the realisation that others don't actually enjoy benefits denied to me. Still, even in the rain, Amsterdam, this year's European City of Culture, does have a certain something that cannot be found in Salford, and which will still be elusive in Glasgow when that city wears the European cultural crown for 1990. I have the morning free, so I head for Bijlmermeer. This public housing estate on the south-eastern edge of Amsterdam was built in the 1960s and early 1970s, housing about 25,000 people. The massive zig-zag of ten-storey slab blocks probably looked exciting on the drawing board, but Bijlmermeer quickly became a by-word for the problems of the outer estates in the Netherlands. I haven't seen it since 1973, but Amsterdam now has 60,000 unemployed, and I've seen plenty of depressed housing estates on the edge of British cities. The visual clues suggest that Bijlmermeer shares some of the characteristics of Britain's outer estates. Car ownership is low, in-comes are below average, people queue to use the public phones, there are signs of a high child population and there's graffiti, the residents are disproportionately black. But there isn't the sense of despair and isolation that you get in Britain. The public phones actually work. There is a substantial pedestrianised shopping centre with a wide range of big-name retailers. I can't see any boarded-up or burnt-out flats. Industrial units are still occupied. It takes me ten minutes to get back into town on the metro. I get off at Nieuwmarkt, where redevelopment for the metro was bitterly resisted by action groups in the 1970s. Their confrontations with the riot police are commemorated in a fragmented mural on the metro wall. Scenes from the struggle are depicted between tumbling bricks as the huge iron ball of the demolition men hits the wall. Is this Dutch tolerance, or a memento to heroic resistance, or a way of neutralising and incorporating urban protest, or all three? Completing the nostalgia I visit the Jordaan, on the tringe of the city centre. In the 1970s I had friends in action groups here. They were opposing redevelopment of this historic working-class district of tall canal houses with precipitous staircases. They won. There has been some infill, but the street markets are still there amid the fascinating lattice of tiny streets. Today the threat to community is less from planning than from market forces. On a brief visit in the rain the Jordaan does not look as gentrified as I'd feared it might have been. So, I head for Schipol and home, heady with the rediscovery of paths I had trodden so long ago. The broad-based community action in defence of place and class which Action Group Jordaan practised in the early 1970s still seems an exemplar for a planning practice that is participatory and redistributive. Planning should be about co-operative working to make places better for those who live there. Such planning should be educative to all those involved, and it should be fun. In the end the victories of Amsterdam's action groups were only partial, but victories are scarce and should be celebrated. I buy a bottle of jenever at the duty-free to prolong the reverie through the long winter nights.