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Item Open Access Editorial Vol. 7 (2018) : Planning and Critical Entrepreneurship(AESOP, 2018) Knierbein, SabineRevisiting the relation between planning and entrepreneurship is a needed focus in planning education, yet not an unambiguous task to address. The 11th Conference of AESOP Young Academics Network followed the theme “Planning and Entrepreneurship”. It was hosted by the Chair of Urban Development at Technische Universität München in Germany. In April 2017, it brought together over 50 participants from 17 countries who presented 46 papers on the subject matter. Sometimes explicitly, at times more implicitly, young international planning scholars sought to review benefits and potential pitfalls of introducing the study of diverse forms of entrepreneurship and related concepts to contemporary planning debates, in theory and praxis, as well as at their interface. The conference embraced a “wide definition of entrepreneurship” (AESOP YA Online, 2016), encompassing the range from commercial entrepreneurship to civil initiatives that “are sometimes filling the void that planning leaves” (ibid.). It simultaneously promoted the notion that both businesses and publics take a sceptical stance towards technocratic planning and government interventions. This scepticism, apparently, “has brought the discipline into crisis, from which it has not yet fully recovered” (ibid.). The following questions accompanied the event: How can planning support innovative activities? How can planners react to technological start-ups moving into the realms of planning, architecture, and geo-localised data? Can (or should) planners themselves become entrepreneurs? (cf. AESOP Online, 2017).Item Open Access Educating planners as social entrepreneurs : The potential of community-based professional training(AESOP, 2018) Hefetz, Shelly; Kallus, RachelThis article reports on the findings of a study that examined and evaluated the applicability and feasibility of community-based knowledge (CBK) in planning education in Israel. Based on research findings, the paper explores different approaches and attitudes to CBK in planning, as well as ways to implement community-based pedagogy (CBP) in professional training. The connection between planning knowledge and pedagogy is explored in order to understand the role of academia in professional training and its potential in establishing a toolbox for current planners. We discuss these challenges, and present a framework for implementing the skills required for educating planners as social entrepreneurs.Item Open Access Glimpses of a new profession within tactical urbanism(AESOP, 2018) Guadalupi, CamillaIn recent years, there has been an increasing interest in urban tactics. While a precise definition of the banner urban tactics is problematic, the generally recognized common features of such practices are the short-term, the small spatial scale, a playful attitude and the attention to locally available resources. It is an ambiguous phenomenon, both in its theorization and in its impact on public policies. The focus of this research is on the category of actors mainly enacting such practices: a growing body of new professional realities, who are stepping out disciplinary boundaries and engaging with complex spatial processes. This new generation of supposed subversive, socially minded and politically-motivated groups is experimenting with self-initiated projects, new forms of financing and alternative organizational structures, mostly in the form of multidisciplinary and precarious collectives. Exploratory and interpretative in nature, this paper suggests some potential lines of investigation to be followed.Item Open Access Understanding the added value of rooting geo-technologies in planning practice : The “Intramural” case study in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain(AESOP, 2018) Luque-Martín, Irene; Izquierdo-Cubero, JorgeWhile planning practice largely relies on conventional planning methodologies, academia is ahead on the research about geotechnical tools such as Planning Support Systems (PSS) and how they could support contemporary and complex planning processes. The aim of this paper is to show the outcomes of the application of geo-tools (i.e. Geographical information systems) in an empirical case carried out by practitioners, academics, and the Municipality of Jerez. It draws on empirical data from a planning project focused on the dilapidated and oldest area in the city centre. This area is collapsing due to lack of maintenance and lack of inhabitants. The project created an urban indicator framework, to determine the agenda and priorities for urban development projects implemented in the area. It is a quantitative approach and distil what could be done to ameliorate the situation. This paper promotes aims to reflect how PSS can be appropriated in a specific planning culture. The goal is to find which are the crucial urban indicators and which are the added values found during the implementation of PSS during the process. It concludes by emphasizing the valuable contributions of empirical case studies to better understanding the added value of PSS in planning practice. It reflects on the demand to promote tailored PSS applications in order to adapt to local planning methods and theories.Item Open Access Social impact evaluation in culture-led regeneration processes Reflections on the “social return on investment” perspective(AESOP, 2018) Ragozino, StefaniaConsidering that a relevant challenge for social enterprises is to assess their social impacts, this paper approaches this issue by investigating cases that exemplify engagement in culture-led regeneration processes. Assuming the paradigm of ‘Complex Urban Landscape’ (CUL) as a holistic approach focused on the role of relationships, and conceiving the social enterprise as a hybrid organisation potentially affecting the urban context, the author presents a reflection on one of the most-used and much-debated social impact evaluation methods, the Social Return On Investment (SROI). The research deals with three main challenges: the difficulties in integrating cultural heritage as commons within urban planning and practices; the potential role of social enterprises to transmit cultural value through experiences of culture-led regeneration processes; and the exigencies of planning and developing social impact evaluation capable of critically observing and narrating the theory of change proposed by social enterprises.Item Open Access Temporary use & collective action How urban planning practices contribute to adaptive capacity building for economic resilience(AESOP, 2018) A. Chang, RobinAmongst the proliferation of practice- and theory-based concepts that are changing urban planning, the renaissance of resilience is proving its potential for impressive implications instead of remaining a brief trend. This paper considers the affordances of an evolutionary and adaptive resilience framing for planning policy and practice in relation to economic development. Specifically, the research presented here explores the explanatory and analytical values of resilience through transformative collective action that incites experimentation, social learning and adaptive capacity building through entrepreneurial temporary uses. In the spotlight is Bremen’s temporary use policy of ZwischenZeitZentrale, through which temporary use is managed in the wake of economic and structural change. This softer form of policy demonstrates how planning mechanisms can complement strategies to address hurdles following gradual forms of crises. Through the case study of Plantage 9, an illustration of collective action is anchored by entrepreneurial temporary use that enable temporary users, temporary use managers and public administrations to build adaptive capacity for economic resilience.Item Open Access How to plan for transformative change in light of new mobility technologies? A discussion on reflexivity as a planning principle and the format of real-world laboratories(AESOP, 2018) Bruck, Emilia M.The fundamental uncertainty that accompanies innovation and transformation processes has influenced a growing body of literature on adaptive, explorative and reflexive planning. Such notions take stock of the complex interdependence in technological, social and spatial development. The article explores notions of reflexivity in urban planning and expands three dimensions with respect to the ongoing mobility transition: Openness and flexibility; learning and exploration; and embedding of initiatives. In this context, the article further reviews real-world laboratories as a format to structure learning processes and transdisciplinary collaboration for alternative mobility futures. In the wake of a rapidly growing new mobility sector in cities, aspirations of problem-solving through technology prevail. Yet urban planners and policy makers are challenged to evaluate opportunities and risks in relation to existing urban development goals. Reflexive strategies encourage long-term thinking, anticipation of unintended consequences and short-term explorations. A systematic integration of reflexivity can enable urban planners to intentionally guide change processes, while also facilitating the agency of others.Item Open Access Investigating links among urban sprawl and environmental justice indicators in US territories(AESOP, 2018) Tsoulou, IoannaSprawl often characterizes unsustainable, car-dependent, and low-density urban development at the edges of cities. Much research has documented the relationship among sprawl and air pollutant concentrations and many studies have addressed sprawl’s social implications, especially for low-income and minority groups. However, limited research has investigated the links between areas with increased levels of sprawl and air pollution, where vulnerable populations reside. This paper brings together the refined sprawl dataset from Smart Growth America and selected environmental justice indicators on air pollution-ozone and air toxics- from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool (EJSCREEN), in a national-level analysis of U.S. territories. Through Pearson correlations and a series of logistic regressions, the significant connection of sprawl and ozone concentrations is shown, in areas with more low-income, and less educated groups with higher percentages of children. On the other hand, while air toxics cancer risk is higher in areas with low-income, and linguistically isolated racial minorities, it has lower levels in more sprawled areas. Upon a closer look, it is shown that only selected dimensions of compactness link to higher cancer risk, while aspects such as a higher mix of jobs may have a reverse effect on it. These findings provide new directions in the ongoing discussion of sustainable urban development patterns and suggest that the focus should be on development that can promote better air quality, while simultaneously reducing social vulnerability to environmental challenges, with additional benefits for local innovation and community building.Item Open Access Social responsibility for architects in a global construction practice A theoretical foundation(AESOP, 2018) Clarissa RhombergThis article seeks to conceptualise an understanding of the role and the nature of socially responsible architects and their architectural firms in a rapidly growing global construction market. Recognising a construction site as a key field for architectural and urban research, the theoretical framework reflects the need for working interdisciplinary to understand current phenomena, the social conditions of global building production, the role of the architect within a globalised building practice, and the perspective of governance ethics. Therefore, it brings together various theoretical perspectives from (1) the profession of the architect, (2) the role of ethics in globalised professional design services, (3) corporate governance and business ethics, as well as (4) stakeholder theory. In particular, the paper describes the rapid intensification of moral challenges in this contemporary global construction practice, and it concludes that the social principles of justice and inclusiveness need to be embedded in architecture, planning, and construction.