Compromise Planning : A Theoretical Approach from a Distant Corner of Europe

TRAMA

The purpose of the book is to elaborate a planning theory which departs from the plethora of theories which reflect the conditions of developed countries of the North-West. The empirical material of this effort is derived from a country, Greece, which sits on the edge between North-West and South-East, at the corner of Europe. No doubt, there is extensive international literature on planning theory in general from a bewildering variety of viewpoints. The interested professional or student of urban and regional planning is certainly aware of the dizzying flood of books, articles and research reports on planning theory and of their never-ending borrowing of obscure concepts from more respectable scientific disciplines, from mathematics to philosophy and from physics to economics, human geography and sociology. He or she probably observed that there is a growing interest in theoretical approaches from the viewpoint of the so-called “Global South”. The author of the present book has for many decades faced the impasse of attempting to transplant theories founded on the experience of the North-West to countries with a totally different historical, political, social and geographical background. He learned that the reality that planners face is unpredictable, patchy, and responsive to social processes, frequently of a very pedestrian nature. Planning strives to deal with private interests which planners are keen to envelop in a single “public interest”, which is extremely hard to define. The behaviour of the average citizen, far from being that of the neoclassical model of the homo economicus, is that of an individual, a kind of homo individualis, who interacts with the state and the public administration within a complex web of mutual dependence and negotiation. The state and its administrative apparatus, i.e., the key-determinants and fixers of urban and regional planning policy, bargain with this individual, offer inducements, exemptions, derogations and privileges, deviate unhesitatingly from their grand policy pronouncements, but still defend the rationality and comprehensiveness of the planning system they have legislated and operationalized. It is by and large a successful modus vivendi, but only thanks to a constant practice of compromise. Hence, the term compromise planning, which the author coined as an alternative to all the existing theoretical forms of planning. This is the sort of planning, and of the accompanying theory, with which he deals in this book. It is the outcome of experience and knowledge accumulated in a long personal journey of academic teaching in England and Greece, research, and professional involvement.  

SOMMARIO

Front matter   Dedication Foreword Preface About the book Table of contents About the author Acronyms Table of diagrams, figures and text-boxes   Ch.1 Introduction – Defining the problem   Prologue 1.1 Spatial planning 1.2 Space 1.3 Structure of the book References   PART I: Review of theories   Ch.2 Planning theories: Typologies and overcrowding   Abstract Prologue 2.1 Origins of planning theory 2.2 Urban planning under attack 2.3 Planning theory typologies: Theories in, of, for, on and about planning and Faludi’s legacy 2.4 Planning theory yes, but what about practice? 2.5 The traditions underpinning planning theory and the early John Friedmann 2.6 Yiftachel’s typology 2.7 The “communicative” challenge 2.8 Planning theory as textbook material 2.9 Critical stances 2.10 An inheritance of confusion 2.11 Towards a more lucid categorization of theories? 2.12 An effort to simplify the prepositional game: Currents of ideas and types of planning 2.13 Charles Hoch’s pragmatism and Ernest Alexander’s contingency model    Epilogue: An opening for a theory of compromise planning? References   Ch.3 Mainstream theories: The rational and communicative currents   Abstract Prologue 3.1 The rational current Key-words 3.1.1 The heritage of rational planning 3.1.2 Rationalism and its critics 3.1.3 Rational planning, its historical roots and its resilient persistence 3.1.4 Statutory planning and its rational foundations 3.1.5 Planning, power and the state 3.1.6 Planning’s “scientific” methods and techniques 3.1.7 Systems thinking 3.1.8 Rational planning abandoned, but for how long? 3.2 The communicative current Key-words 3.2.1 Communicative and collaborative planning  3.2.2 Conceptual foundations 3.2.3 The role of plans and the public interest 3.2.4 Objections to, and weaknesses of, collaborative planning   3.2.5 Uneasy similarities of communicative and rational planning 3.2.6 Complementarities and integration of theories 3.3 Pragmatism Epilogue References   Ch.4 Theoretical challenges: The radical current and Southern theory   Abstract Prologue 4.1 The radical current Key-words 4.1.1 The radical turn 4.1.2 Planners, activism and transformative planning 4.1.3 Ethics and justice 4.1.4 Planning for development 4.1.5 Informal planning 4.1.6 Militant planning for change 4.1.7 Movements: Feminism and “othering” 4.1.8 Agonism and antagonism 4.2 Southern theory 4.3 Neoliberalism Epilogue References   Ch.5 The “climate” current: Environmental concerns in the Anthropocene age   Abstract Prologue Key-words 5.1 Climate change and planning in simple language 5.2 Environment, sustainability, and first steps towards a climate current theory 5.3 Risks and resilience 5.4 Being in the Anthropocene age 5.5 A Greek example Epilogue References   PART II: Greece as a case study   Ch.6 Greece: On the edge of North and South – A historical perspective   Abstract Prologue 6.1 Independence and dependence, nationalism, and the Bavarians 6.2 National lands, first development efforts, bankruptcies and defeats 6.3 Social classes, Greeks of the diaspora, emerging elite and cities 6.4 The Asia Minor disaster and the influx of refugees 6.5 Second World War, German occupation, and Civil War 6.6 Development and reconstruction 6.7 Stability, affluence, and renewed crisis Epilogue References   Ch. 7 The state as a crucial parameter for the interpretation of planning   Abstract Prologue 7.1 The formation of the nation state 7.2 The size of the state 7.3 Legislation 7.4 State, populism and patronage 7.5 Societal attitudes and the state-society nexus Epilogue References   Ch. 8 The Greek planning system: A case study at the tip of the Balkan peninsula   Abstract Prologue 8.1 The legacy of the past and its impact on planning 8.2 First steps of town planning 8.3 Ground-breaking town planning legislation in the interwar period 8.4 The unfinished decade of the 1960s and the emergence of regional planning 8.5 Athens 8.6 Regional development 8.7 Network of urban centres 8.8 Planning legislation in the 1970s and 1980s and the Operation of Town Planning Reorganization 8.9 Realities on the ground and out-of-plan building activity 8.10 Legal quandaries 8.11 European Union 8.12 Resuscitation of regional spatial planning in the 1990s and new planning instruments 8.13 The apogee of external pressure after the economic crisis and the parallel system of planning   8.14 The rational and hierarchical edifice of Greek planning   8.15 Spatial planning, environment and natural disasters   Epilogue: New challenges and the danger of déjà vu     References   Part III: A theory of compromise planning   Ch.9 Planners, knowledge transfer, planning culture: Looking for a new theory   Abstract Prologue 9.1 A personal journey 9.2 A précis of conditions in Greece and imported planning tools 9.3 The profile of planners 9.4 The culture of planning and the Greek peculiarity 9.5 Greece: A sui generis case? 9.6 Compromise, collaboration, pragmatism and improvisation 9.7 Basis for a theoretical model  Epilogue References   Ch. 10 Compromise planning and homo individualis   Abstract Prologue Key-words 10.1 The solace of pragmatism 10.2 A native Greek theoretical debate 10.3 Homo economicus and homo socialis  10.4 Critical realism, places and fables 10.5 More homines, structure and human agents 10.6 The person next door: Homo individualis 10.7 Bac? to the task of building a planning theory: The Greek planning model 10.8 The public interest as a planning compass 10.9 Spatial planning 10.10 Rationality and exceptionalism 10.11 The theorist and the theoretical model Epilogue References   Ch.11 Conclusions: The parallel worlds of planning - Variants of compromise   Abstract Prologue 11.1 Janus-faced compromise 11.2 The state and its pivotal role  11.3 The ugly face of planning and hopes for the future 11.4 The construction of a theoretical framework Epilogue References   Index

AUTORE

Louis C. Wassenhoven is Professor Emeritus (Urban and Regional Planning), National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), a Postgraduate Diploma in Planning from the Architectural Association School of Architecture (London), an MA in Architecture (NTUA) and a Certificate in Town Planning (Ministry of Housing, France). Apart from his career at NTUA, where he was the director of the Laboratory of Regional Planning and Urban Development, he has taught as Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the Development Planning Unit, Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning (University College London) and as visiting teacher in other universities. He has served as chairman of the Greek National Council of Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development, as chairman of the Steering Committee of the Joint Activity on Urban Management of OECD, as vice-chairman of the Greek State Scholarships Foundation, as member of the board of the company Hellinikon s.a. (Management and Redevelopment of the site of the former Athens international airport), and as member of the council of the Technical University of Crete. He is a past member of the British Royal Town Planning Institute and a member of the Association of Greek Urban and Regional Planners. He is the author of four books in Greek, i.e., on Territorial Governance, Maritime Spatial Planning, Hellenic … passion: Development of the former Hellinikon airport of Athens, and Putting order in our country: A history of spatial planning in Greece after World War II (in print). He is also the author of a book in English (The Ancestry of Regional Spatial Planning: A planner’s look at history) published by Springer, and of a number of articles and papers in Greek or English. He wrote the volume on Greece of the EU Compendium of Spatial Planning Systems and Policies.

ALTRE INFORMAZIONI

• Condizione: Nuovo
• ISBN: 9783030943301
• Dimensioni: 235 x 155 mm Ø 816 gr
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Illustration Notes: XXIX, 403 p. 1 illus.
• Pagine Arabe: 403
• Pagine Romane: xxix