Land-Use Planning Methodology and Middle-Ground Planning Theories

Abstract

This paper argues that a monolithic land-use planning "grand narrative" is not sufficiently flexible, but that the fragmentation into innumerable "small narratives" goes against any sense of the existence of an established domain of knowledge. Its aim is to explore the epistemological possibility for "middle ground" theories. The methodology adopted for this purpose is to take as a standard reference the methodological components of comprehensive/procedural planning and to measure against them the methodologies proposed by a corpus of other major land-use planning approaches. The outcome of this comparison is that for more than half a century, planning theories in the field of urban and regional planning have been revolving incessantly around the methodological components of the comprehensive model, which seem, at least at the present stage of our knowledge, to be the universal nucleus of the land-use planning enterprise. This paper indicates on this basis the prerequisites for the construction of middle-ground land-use planning theories and how we can pass from the formal contextual variants to real life contexts through the original articulation of planning theory with input from the findings of the actual planning systems.

Multi‐stakeholder involvement in urban market infrastructure renewals in the Aboabo and Central markets of the Tamale Metropolitan District in Ghana: An application of the stakeholder theory

“…The causes mentioned above worry about how well various interests are taken into account throughout the urban market infrastructure renewal process in the key towns in the sub‐region. The claim has been made that, because the social underpinnings of urban market infrastructure renewal processes are either insufficient or opaque, linear relationships predominate, and as a result, sustainability is undermined (Lagopoulos, 2018; van Dijk & Beunen, 2009; Zolkafli et al, 2017).…”

Assessing Land Dynamics and Sustainability on the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua: A Method Based on Comprehensive Land Units

“…As it has recently been highlighted, there is a gap in contemporary land-planning theory with regard to the survey methodology of land uses, and rethinking the methodologies for planning and management is needed [14,15]. Reviews of the evolution of urban land-use survey methodologies during the last century reveal that methodologies have been seriously trivialized, with simplistic and empirical approaches to land-use survey methodology [16].…”

Entorno, paisaje y patrimonio: la matriz territorial vivible sobre la que proyectar futuros

“…Algo que también tiene que ver con la excesiva atención prestada a la cuestión procedimental frente a la sustantiva (la materia o contenido) de la planificación (Murray, 2005;Lagopoulos, 2018). Ahondar en la reconocida correlación entre forma y fondo (Mazza, 2010) resulta fundamental para avanzar hacia una comprensión de la política (pública) de ordenación del territorio como el ámbito predilecto conducente hacia una gobernanza territorial plena (Farinós, 2017), sobre la que basar el empoderamiento, los derechos básicos y la calidad de vida de la población, avanzando en clave emancipatoria a partir de nuevas relaciones de metagobernanza (Peiró, 2022).…”

“…Sin embargo, más allá de este valor analítico del paisaje, y de la mano de las corrientes habermasianas en materia de planificación -ya sean comunicativas (ver Healey, 2006), colaborativas (Innes, 1994) o estratégicas (Albrechts, 2004)-, es posible encontrar una nueva utilidad a la percepción subjetiva del territorio que caracteriza el paisaje. Y es que, como recoge Lagopoulos (2018), en estas formas de planificación resulta fundamental (y es una de sus señas de identidad) el desarrollo de una narrativa como herramienta para la articulación de las acciones sociales. El potencial del paisaje es notable en este sentido, por la forma en la que la sociedad lo percibe.…”