Prefiguring a future city: urban growth,spatial planning and the economic local context in Catalonia

This study undertook a quantitative analysis of town master plans to define future urban growth. Spatial direction and intensity of urban expansion were analysed in relation to local contexts using land zoning and a comprehensive database of socio-economic indicators at the municipal scale in Catalonia, Spain. Our results illustrate a progressive shift towards discontinuous settlements consolidating urban centres in most accessible rural areas. Contrary to what was hypothesized (and partly observed) in recent decades, settlement expansion will modestly contribute to a balanced urban spatial structure. Future urban development in Catalonia will not follow a polycentric model, fuelling instead the growth of medium and small urban centres. This process may consolidate the incipient divide in rural areas with high accessibility and a dynamic economic base with remote inland areas experiencing land abandonment and depopulation. The use of indicators derived from town master plans in the assessment of (scattered or polycentric) future urbanization in Europe is finally discussed.     

Cross-border and local co-operation on the island of Ireland: An economic perspective

Cross-border and local co-operation can foster local learning and contribute positively to business performance and social cohesion. This paper considers firms' economic motivation for both types of co-operation around the Ireland–Northern Ireland border. This area, while inevitably impacted by civil unrest in Northern Ireland, shares many of the economic and developmental characteristics of border areas throughout Europe. Simultaneous probit models are used to examine the determinants of co-operation. Overall, around a third of firms in Ireland and Northern Ireland engage in local co-operation of some form; around one in six in Northern Ireland and one in twelve in Ireland also engage in cross-border co-operation. Proximity to the border, perceived barriers to cross-border co-operation and country uncertainty reduce the incidence of cross-border co-operation rates below that of local co-operation. Cross-border co-operation in Northern Ireland is more common because of small region size and fewer perceived barriers to cross-border co-operation.     

Class cities: Classics,utopianism and urban planning in early twentieth-century Britain

This article examines the intellectual background to debates in the town planning movement in early twentieth-century Britain. The movement drew heavily on two traditions, that of the anarchists, who provided much of the theory, and that of the philanthropists. The reception of the Classical city influenced these debates through the provision of key paradigms. These paradigms were predominantly sociological rather than architectural and related to the ‘ideal’ societies to be generated by the new cities. The article argues that urban planning followed a path parallel to British sociology in adopting Classical ideas and forming itself around particular Classicising imaginings of society. Whereas the anarchist tradition exploited the Classical cautiously, differentiating the cities of Rome from the Classical poleis of Greece and finding in those Greek traditions the possibility of radical associative democracy, town planners in the British tradition came to engage with the Classical in a very different way. Through figures such as Patrick Geddes, the influence of Classicism served to divest British urban planning of its political radicalism and the Classical polis was used to offer a utopianism which was hierarchical and conservative.     

Fostering and planning urban regeneration: the governance of cultural districts in Copenhagen

Policy-makers and urban planners struggle to find the right formula to implement urban regeneration processes based on cultural assets, often focusing on the desired outcomes, but rarely questioning how the policy process can shape them. This paper examines different governance models for the implementation and organization of cultural districts, and evaluates how they can affect their actual realization by investigating three cases in Copenhagen, Denmark. The deindustrialization of Copenhagen left many of the city’s harbour areas disused and in turn provided the opportunity to develop three new cultural districts in the city centre. The paper contributes to the literature on cultural districts by matching specificities and contingencies attached to a particular urban area with the governance model adopted for its development. The paper claims that temporal experimentation has to be included in cultural planning and a mix of bottom-up and top-down approaches is more desirable than both a totally unregulated initiative and a real estate-driven development and a totally unregulated initiative, as it ensures that initiatives remain financially viable and that the creative workers and companies retain a certain control of the area development, and in turn counteracts gentrification.     

The economic planning advisory council: The reality of consensus

The Hawke federal Labor government continued the process of national reconciliation and consensus‐formation begun by the National Economic Summit by institutionalizing group/government intermediation and consultation within the Economic Planning Advisory Council (EPAC). This paper looks at the development of the policy which led to the establishment of EPAC to determine what was expected of such a body. The objects and functions of the council are then examined to determine whether its operation increases the efficacy of consensus in government policy‐making. The formal institutionalization of interest groups into the policy process opens up questions about the relevance of theories of corporatism to this innovation in the Australian political system and the findings of this paper in regard to EPAC are discussed in this context to ascertain whether there is evidence of corporatism inherent in these arrangements. Finally, consideration has been given to the question of whether EPAC and consensus have changed the relationship between sectional interests and the government in the Australian political system.     

Towards better cooperative learning in urban planning education

ABSTRACT

Urban planning is a practical multifarious discipline and thus teamwork competence is important for urban planners. Cooperative learning is a possible method of obtaining this competence in the education process. Our aim is to investigate the cooperative learning method on the Urban Planning undergraduate course at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. Our paper focuses on the influence of student-directed assessment on free-riding problem, and students´ dealing with teachers´ dissensus. We present student perspectives based on a questionnaire and face-to-face interviews with all students in the final year of the course. The results are discussed considering cultural differences based on aspects of power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Our main findings support the importance of a student-driven approach in collaborative learning as prevention against the free-riding problem, and multiple teacher lessons as prevention against the conformist approach, and to promote critical thinking.     

Sustainable new economic centres in European metropolitan regions: A stakeholders' perspective

In many European metropolitan regions, new economic centres have emerged at the edge of large cities or in their (post-)suburban areas. This paper explores the possible contribution of these new centres to a more sustainable regional development of European metropolitan regions. The realization of sustainable business parks is even more complicated at 'greenfield' sites than at 'brownfield' sites. With the absence of space scarcity or congestion problems, the temptation to choose easier, less sustainable solutions is hard to resist. Nevertheless, in the Dutch Randstad region, some edge-city and suburban business locations try to meet high sustainability standards. Two case studies in Hoofddorp and Almere illustrate the tough road towards truly sustainable business parks, focusing on the role of the various stakeholders that either encourage or discourage the realization of sustainability potentials.     

Land sales in eighth- and ninth-century Bavaria: legal, economic and social aspects

Based upon an examination of the Bavarian law code and detailed analysis of thirty eighth- and ninth-century deeds from Bavarian cartularies, this article argues that land sales were common in early medieval Bavaria and generally followed codified procedures, derived in part at least, from late-Roman vulgar law. The essential element in the sale was the payment of the purchase price ( pretium ) which established its validity. This purchase price, even when expressed in monetary forms, was seldom executed in specie and was determined by customary social as well as strictly economic considerations. The Church probably was the primary purchaser of land to consolidate properties obtained by gift, and lay men and women sold land to meet public obligations, to obtain necessary stock and to satisfy personal wants.     

Rhetoric of economic rationality: The foundation of Norwegian transport planning

Planners often present their recommendations as the result of a rational choice process. The appeal to rationality ranks among the planners’ most prominent rhetorical practices. National level Norwegian transport plans convey the impression that environmental problems can be solved by rational economic allocation. Apparent harmony between potentially conflicting goals simplifies the image of society and facilitates the formulation of a consistent and thus convincing policy. The idyllic account of the relationship between economic efficiency and environmental protection is therefore an effectual rhetorical move. Furthermore, the equilibrium solutions of neoclassical economics make it seem like no special interests are favoured at the expense of others. Finding planning solutions seems to be a question of balancing the utilities and costs of small adjustments, purportedly without involving power relations in any explicit way. Hence, the rhetoric of economic rationality serves to present politics as virtually apolitical, transforming it into expert solutions defended by academic jargon which the public is expected to accept rather than digest.     

Destructive creation: fascist urban planning,architecture and New Towns in the Pontine Marshes

This paper examines the construction, architecture, planning and design of New Towns in the Pontine Marshes, south of Rome, in the 1930s, analysing the discourses which contributed to their shaping and settlement. It focuses specifically on the plans and architectural characteristics of the city of Sabaudia as the best example of fascist urban utopias in the area. The paper also moves beyond an analysis of architecture and planning to consider the human beings who were slated for occupying what were viewed as ideal, utopian fascist spaces. This is done through an investigation of Italy's ruralization and internal colonization policies, which aimed to tackle a ‘demographic problem’ defined through recourse to statistics and sociological analysis. These policies were animated by colonists, and their families, chosen by the regime's institutions to take part in the Pontine Marshes project. Italian fascism's structuring of a new urban environment, which stretched from grand systemic designs to the measurement of mosquito net dimensions in colonial houses' bedrooms, justified the attempted social and political control of fascism's experimental urban subjects.     

"Sound law and undoubtedly good policy": Roe v. Wade in comparative perspective

This article traces the abortion reform processes in the US, the UK, and Australia to reveal the underlying rhetoric and policy rationales which served to fuel abortion reform. The early abortion legislation in Great Britain, Australia, and Texas is described to lay the groundwork for a discussion on the widespread modification the laws were subject to through medical practice and judicial interpretation. In 1938, a trial judge in Britain carved out a legal loophole to sway a jury to acquit a physician who openly performed an abortion on a 14-year-old rape victim. The judge found that the law neither prohibited abortion absolutely nor permitted unrestricted medical discretion, but rather lay within the two extremes. Before the 1960s, psychiatric subterfuges were used by physicians as justification for performing abortions for "social" reasons, but reform was spearheaded by concerns about rape, incest, and fetal damage (especially after exposure to rubella or thalidomide). Reformers also argued that abortion would reduce poverty, and it soon became clear that all but the poor could obtain safe abortions. Claims were also made that abortion had historically been allowed before quickening. A new consensus grew and was encouraged by physicians who accepted abortion because it furthered social justice. The law struggled to keep up. In Britain a major reform bill was enacted by Parliament. In Australia, the police gave up trying to prosecute doctors as judges interpreted the law in such a way as to render the doctors innocent of wrongdoing, and, in the US, some states adopted liberal laws. The Roe vs. Wade decision in the US, therefore, may have made abortion a constitutional issue through use of the doctrine of privacy, but the other elements of the decision reflected the situation in the UK and Australia. For example, the Row decision relies on the physician-patient relationship to regulate abortion on demand. Also, the decision acknowledges that conflicting rights exist which allow the law to neither prohibit abortion nor leave it entirely unrestricted. In each country, the legislation is centered on the professional competence of the practitioner and on the provision of abortion before quickening. This reliance on a medical decision imbues the abortion debate with a certain ambiguity which is shared by all three countries.     

Beyond moving people: excavating the motivations for investing in urban public transit infrastructure in Bilbao Spain

This paper explores the context and contradictions that have brought Bilbao Spain, a city of some 1 million inhabitants, to its stature as a leader and model of contemporary public transit. The decision to invest in public transit infrastructure is situated within an urban context that includes historical, economic, urban design, social, environmental and political motivations. From this contextual rooting, public transit projects are examined for their potential to achieve both a tangible set of objectives and an intangible symbolic meaning that presents transit projects as being about more than just moving people.     

The Liberalization of the Land Market in Spain: The 1998 Reform of Urban Planning Legislation

Against a general climate of liberalization, the Spanish Government has made a concerted effort to bring about a reduction in house prices. A legislative reform in April 1998 has sought to liberalize land and planning, through (a) refining the category of land previously excluded from development to enable residential development to take place, (b) allowing for greater flexibility of land uses and building controls, and (c) reducing administrative controls. This paper discusses the extent to which such reforms are likely to meet their anticipated objectives, resulting in beneficial effects in the land and housing markets, as well as the territorial impact of such reforms from a sustainability perspective.     

Planning Innovations in Land Management and Governance in Fragmented Rural Areas: Two Examples from Galicia (Spain)

Land fragmentation can be an important drawback for the development of rural areas. Due to the small size of the units, land management and planning are difficult from both the private and the public point of view. In some regions of Europe, land fragmentation can lead to the collapse of land-based activities such as agriculture and forestry. This process triggers land abandonment, which causes social, economic and environmental problems. Traditional interventions such as land consolidation have not worked because of the scale of land fragmentation, which leads to huge transaction costs. New planning instruments and governance structures for land management that balance the relations between property rights, management and labour force can be developed, in order to avoid the problems of land fragmentation. In this paper, we present two innovative examples of land management and governance structures for dealing with land fragmentation in rural areas of Galicia northwestern Spain. They were able to combine the use of individual and common property rights to make land use more sustainable, instead of trying to change land ownership. The new governance structures helped to increase efficiency and sustainability of the land use by, for example, increasing labour productivity, clarifying property rights and diminishing land abandonment.     

Medical anthropology abroad: An introductory text for medical students in Spain

Reverte C, José Manuel. Antropología Médica, Volume I. Madrid: Editorial Rueda, 1981. xvii + 815 pp. including figures, photographs, and bibliography. $40.00 cloth.     

Heritage and participatory governance: An analysis of political strategies and social fractures in Spain

In the heritage field, institutions tend to see social participation as a synonym for good governance practice. This extends to other areas such as the environment, humanitarian aid, and sustainable development. In this article, the authors analyze the use of participatory models in the management of heritage through the study of three heritage sites in Spain: the prehistoric paintings in Altamira, the Mosque‐Cathedral in Córdoba, and the Cabo de Gata‐Nijar Natural Park. Their study suggests that, despite the promises of more democratic heritage governance, participatory methods are commonly bounded by social fractures that are concomitant to certain ‘heritage regimes’. They conclude that the critical study of participation in heritage should go beyond the dichotomy between ‘good and bad’ participation. Rather, it should focus on understanding what participation does to the entire heritagization process.