A Flat Ontology in Spatial Planning

Boelens, Luuk

doi:10.1080/02513625.2021.1981006

Cited by 7 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Nevertheless, our interest is in understanding the ontologies framed by the discourses apparent in the instruments setting live-work goals, the actors implementing them and their dependencies, and early planning directions and enablers (see section 5). Such a framing is consistent with an 'ontology of becoming', which understands planning as a 'socio-spatial' process involving actors -including entrepreneurial local governments -through institutional relations that allow them to establish strategies for spatial change (Albrechts, 2015;Boelens, 2021).…”

Section: Housing Planning and Live-work MIXmentioning

confidence: 80%

Ontologies of live-work mix in Amsterdam, Brussels and Stockholm: an institutionalist approach drawing on path dependency

Uyttebrouck

Decker

Teller

2021

European Planning Studies

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This paper examines the impact of institutional frameworks on ontologies of 'live-work mix', i.e., the renewed intertwining of residential and economic uses in urban developments. We aim to understand how local housing and planning regimes influence the nature of live-work mix by comparing three contrasting institutional frameworks (Amsterdam, Brussels, Stockholm), using an institutionalist approach to governance drawing on the concept of path dependency. We address two research questions: how have each city's housing and planning regimes influenced current urban development strategies, and what ontologies of live-work mix do these regimes and strategies underlie. Based on a literature review, document analysis and exploratory interviews, we show that live-work goals are defined in instruments underpinned by different discourses and early planning directions, but in which housing supply is instrumental to economic growth. Market parties play an essential role in implementing these goals as a result of critical junctures and dependencies affecting the actors involved and their governance capacity. Overall, the local ontologies of live-work mix reflect broader city understandings and are either consistently oriented towards attractiveness or, on the contrary, overlapping between, sometimes, antagonistic agendas. Used sensitively, our analytical framework appears to be relevant to understanding the local mitigation of global developments.

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Section: Housing Planning and Live-work MIXmentioning

confidence: 80%

Ontologies of live-work mix in Amsterdam, Brussels and Stockholm: an institutionalist approach drawing on path dependency

Uyttebrouck

Decker

Teller

2021

European Planning Studies

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“…It, thus, flags the futility to search ‘How a good public plan could (let alone should) have been made’ as neither phronimos, the common good nor individual and collective phronesis are pre-given and invariable. As Boelens (2021) put it: ‘there isn’t so much a good or just planning… In a flat ontology, the only thing there is, is a better (co-evolutionary) fit in that situation, at that specific moment, for that time being’. Obviously, to assess the ‘better’ a rudimentary appraisal of the common good is inevitable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assemblage is a type of flat ontology (Ash, 2020), opposed to vertical and hierarchical ontologies. It rejects reified essences, binaries, fixed/invariable/pre-determined categories, and assigns agency to both human and nonhuman entities (Bennett, 2010; Boelens, 2021; Marston et al, 2005, 2007). Assemblages differ in spatio-temporal scale but not in ontological status (DeLanda, 2006).…”

Section: An Assemblage-based Phronetic Planning Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

The making of good public plans Phronesis, Phronetic Planning Research and Assemblage Thinking

Briassoulis

2022

Planning Theory

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Planning for the common good requires the exercise of phronesis and a fitting ontology of planning situations. This paper critically appraises Flyvbjerg’s Phronetic Planning Research approach through the lens of Aristotelian phronesis and Assemblage Thinking, showing that it inadequately addresses these interdependent issues. It proposes an Assemblage-based Phronetic Planning Approach (APPA) and a methodology to implement it. APPA conceptualizes planning situations as multiplicities comprising assemblages which best represent their complexity, materiality and spatiality and simultaneously enunciate the relationality and situatedness of individual and collective phronesis. APPA offers an immanent approach to study and support the making of public plans. It stresses the co-constitution of phronesis, phronimos, collective phronesis and the situated ‘common good’ within interacting assemblages and entangled planning multiplicities unfolding in a milieu over the planning process. Making good public plans under present and future uncertainty involves steering these multiplicities to foster the emergence of collective phronesis and the good plan that delivers the situated common good. Professional planners and other actors, desiring the ‘successful symbiosis’ of humans and the material world, may strive to become phronimos. Future research needs to engage with the Deleuzoguattarian and Aristotelian scholarship to elucidate critical theoretical issues, develop novel methodologies and analytical tools and empirically test APPA in diverse planning situations and geographical contexts.

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“…Considering the expansion of these professional disciplines to incorporate stakeholder involvement, the idea of a flat ontology for spatial planning proposes a means of transcending the dualism of top-down/bottom-up approaches, establishing the basis for a more horizontal approach to spatial issues. According to this notion, "knowledge is always situational, depending on time and place, fundamentally relational" [19]. The relational turn affecting the city thus requires the capacity to understand immaterial and volatile bonds, grounded in uncertain territorial configurations.…”

Section: Theoretical Background From Complexity and Uncertainty To In...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Inquiry-Based Learning in Spatial Development and Heritage Conservation: A Workshop at Corviale, Rome

2023

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Situated local knowledge and co-evolutionary processes overtake certitude and formal planning, challenging the way (cultural) heritage is produced in terms of both space and knowledge. This article contributes to the debate surrounding planning education and research by exploring the potential of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in spatial development and heritage conservation. The main argument is that the IBL format presented herein enables interaction and cooperation between various groups and their diverse sets of knowledge. To that end, the IBL approach was implemented both through project work and by creating a specific learning environment encompassing theory, exhibition, places, and people, and in which a research process was realised by students through iteration and reflection. The contribution systematises the results of a 2021 workshop held in Venice and Rome, including at the Corviale housing complex (Rome). In seeking to respond to the title-theme of the Venice Biennale, How will we live together?, initial evidence shows that educational activities stemming from clear research questions and “embedded” ways of inquiry-based learning present remarkable opportunities for participants to improve their ability to navigate into fragile and uncertain futures of the territory, engaging students in a wider process of knowledge-building.

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A Flat Ontology in Spatial Planning

Cited by 7 publications

References 36 publications

Ontologies of live-work mix in Amsterdam, Brussels and Stockholm: an institutionalist approach drawing on path dependency

Ontologies of live-work mix in Amsterdam, Brussels and Stockholm: an institutionalist approach drawing on path dependency

The making of good public plans Phronesis, Phronetic Planning Research and Assemblage Thinking

Towards Inquiry-Based Learning in Spatial Development and Heritage Conservation: A Workshop at Corviale, Rome

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