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GreatPlanning

Game

the

Elaborated by Roberto Rocco

Chair Spatial Planning and Strategy, TU Delft

Based on a text byKarina Sehested

University of Copenhagen

SpatialPlanning&Strategy

Objective: To familiarise students with the roles of planners in scenarios of network governance and strategy planning, to encourage students to discuss there roles and the values attached to them and to think about tools they might use while performing these roles.

Time: 1h30 hours

Organisation:

• Students are divided in groups of 4 or more.• Students are given 6 cards with descrip-tions of TYPICAL PLANNING ROLES (or typical planners), derived from SEHESTED 2010.• Students need to choose which of the typi-cal roles they want to perform during the exercise (enough time should be allocated for this, as the objective is that they discuss the different roles).• Once students have chosen one role (or a combination of two), they are presented with a planning task. For this task they need to:

a. Definetheirpositionintheprocess(whereare they located as professionals?)b. List main knowledge, skills and values necessarytofulfilthetaskc. Definewhoaretheactorsinvolvedandmake a diagram showing their relationships (think of different groups of users or inhabitants, the governmental departments involved on deci-sion in the area, companies, investors, etc)d. Suggest a hypothetical structure of net-work of actors possibly involved in the planning problem (sectorial?)e. Suggest one tool to deal with communi-cation and consensus seeking in a hypothetical actor network involved f. Suggest at which point and where this tool would be usedg. Suggest a simple strategy to answer for the

The Great Planning Game

This exercise is based on: SEHESTED, K. 2010. Urban Planners as Network Managers and Metagovernors, Planning Theory & Practice 10:2, 245-263. The author has asserted her intellectual property.

problempresented(onlythetitleshouldsuffice).

Rules:

• Every group needs to elect one or two speakers• Every member of the group needs to have enough time and opportunity to express their opinions and explain their positions• Eachgroupneedstofindreasonablecon-sensus for decisions taken• The activity needs to be conducted with respect for different positions and opinions• Each group will be allocated only 5 min-utes to explain their position in the end

Description of planning roles (based on SE-HESTED 2010):

1. The Traditional Planner:

I am an old-school planner. I was trained to do my job and therefore I believe I am fully capaci-tated to take the right decisions. I believe in the power of the government to make people’s lives better. In order to achieve that, comprehensive planning is the best tool we have at our disposal. By planning carefully and in a detailed way, we will achieve good results for all. I like the tradi-tional ways of organising the work. I am the chief planner; therefore I expect my subordinates will listen to my instructions. We strive for the general good and sometimes I have the feeling we are more concerned about the public than the elected members of our government. Our adversaries are greedy investors who would ruin our city with huge shopping centres and weird ideas about mixed housing. (137 words)

2. The Advocacy Planner:

I am an advocacy planner. You might wonder what that means, but let’s just say that my main objec-tive is to defend the interest of those who don’t have a voice in urban development. We live in an unfair world. Many groups don’t have a voice in urban development (women, minorities, mi-grants, even children are poorly represented!). Resources are not fairly distributed. As a planning professional,itismymoraldutytofightforthosewho have the least, and to guaranty that they will get a fair share of the fruits of development, either by allocating resources to the areas where thesepeopleliveorbyfindingwaystoredistrib-ute the gains. I do that by applying several new tools at my disposal, like progressive taxation or taxation of unproductive land. I accept the market society of course, but there are ways to regulate themarketandtoredistributeprofitinafairway.After all, when investors realise gains in a certain locationtheyaregenerallybenefittingfrominfra-structures built with tax money, and all the posi-tive externalities created by society and especially by all those around them. (182 words)

3. The communicative Planner:

I believe in participation. Democracy is the most important tool for real progress, because real progress IS democracy. You might wonder what that means. Let’s say that by encouraging people to participate in decision-making, I widen the possibility of those people to share the gains of urban development. But most importantly, along the way they will acquire the knowledge and the tools to take a stronger stance in urban develop-ment and will be able to articulate solutions that benefitall.Thisisanimportantaspectofmyprofession and it is called democracy building. Theprocessisasimportantasthefinaloutcomes.Of course, in order to do all this, I must have great communication skills. I need to communicate complex ideas to people who have had no train-ing. But don’t be fooled: their knowledge is as important as the knowledge of professionals and I need to be able to help them articulate it. On the other hand, I also need to facilitate communica-tion that will allow consensus building among dif-ferent stakeholders with very disparate interests. (177 words)

4. The Strategic Planner:

I am a strategic planner. My objective is to develop strategiesthatwillbenefitall,butIamawarethatelected politicians are the legitimate representa-tives of the people. This is why I work hard to seduce them with engaging visions and appealing scenarios, to guide their actions. I think planners must appeal to other professionals working with the city in order to formulate these visions. But sometimes I feel these professionals are not very practical. We need to engage investors as well, and the best way to do this is to offer investors opportunitiesvialargeurbanprojects.Ifindthatlarge urban projects are the best tool to mobilise political and economic action. They are also an effectivewaytointerveneinthespatialconfigu-ration of a city. These projects compose spatial strategies, with which we will achieve agreed goals. (127 words)

5. The Manager Planner:

I am a manager planner. I feel very close to my colleagues who call themselves “strategists”. I be-lieve it is all about having an effective strategy for urban development. But we will not have effective

strategies if we cannot manage our relationship with investors and the private sector in general. We cannot deny that money is an essential factor: nothing can be achieved without investment. Who willpayforthis,isgenerallymyfirstquestion.Butlet’snotforgetthatweareactinginbenefitofthepublic. In order to do so, we need to listen to sev-eral actors, in an organised way, making use of the democratic instruments we have at our disposal. It is important that we keep public participation, but we need to manage it in a way that allows us tocontinuetobeefficient.Toomuchparticipationcan be disruptive and we don’t have that much time. (153 words)

6. The Market Planner:

I like to call myself a market planner. It is not so much that I am working FOR the market. Rather, I am trying to realise projects within the sphere of economic opportunity, and in order to do that, I need to engage with private actors. I am familiar with the logic of business. I feel the public needs to accept co-responsibility for the city’s develop-ment and it is my responsibility to create close relationships between the parties with the neces-sary resources in order to promote development. But this is done in the realm of democracy, with the legal tools at our disposal. In order to make the most of these tools, I need to articulate the contacts between decision makers and investors. I also need to propose news tools with which in-vestors can participate in urban development in a fair way. Of course citizen participation is impor-tant, but it is crucial to manage this participation in order to avoid standstills. (161 words)

7. The Process Planner:

I like to call myself a process planner. This means that my main task is to create democratic pro-cesses that can integrate all relevant actors in order to make common decisions regarding the right kind of urban development. I feel that all af-fected parties should be heard or integrated in the process before decisions are made. Is this time consuming? Of course it is, but this is the price of true democracy. Besides, by doing that I create ownership of decisions and decrease the prospect of our actions being contested. My main skills are communication and networking. Of course I need to be a good communicator if I want to integrate non-professional actors in the planning process. I

am something between a pedagogue and a pro-cess consultant. As a good teacher, I rely on narra-tives to engage all kinds of actors, not only pro-fessional ones, and certainly not only investors. I want to involve the common citizen in decision-making. My advocacy planner friends and I work quite well together. (154 words)

Planning Task:

Renewing Pendrecht

The neighbourhood of Pendrecht lies in the South of the Dutch city of Rotterdam. It belongs to the district of Charlois, one of the poorest parts of the city. Pendrecht was built in the 1950s as part of the effort to provide housing for a growing population in the Post-War period. However, the units were small and unattractive and when the children of Pendrecht grew up, they had much more prosperous prospects than their parents and many of them went away to other neighbour-hoods and municipalities where they could have bigger houses with gardens.

Today, more than 40% of inhabitants of Pendrecht are elderly and most of the units in the area be-long to housing corporations, whorent these units to lower income sectors of soci-ety,amongwhomwecanfindmanyimmigrantswith varied cultures. Along the years, the image of Pendrecht has deteriorated and many people would avoid the neighbourhood today. The plan-ning question is: What are the actions, policies or projects that could bring new economic and social impetus to Pendrecht? How to ‘regenerate’ the neighbourhood while keeping housing afford-able for the inhabitants of the area? Or should we promotegentrificationtoavoidghettoization?

Figure 1 General administrative map of the municipality of Rotterdam, with Pendrecht highlighted. Map: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. Copyright owner.

1 Although Pendrecht is a real neighbourhood in Rotterdam, some of the data was adapted to this exercise. Notably, the neighbourhood has already undergone a large regeneration strategy devised by the city of Rotterdam, which produced good results.

Pendrecht basic data: Source: Funda.nl and CBS Status: Neighbourhood, part of a larger district (staadsdeel) Charlois, in Rotterdam

Pendrecht RotterdamInhabitants 11.625 544.54Man / women

49,1% / 50,9%

49,3% / 50,7%

Average income

€ 10.600 € 12.523

Total hous-ing units

6.03 265.63

Average housing unit price (WOZ)

€ 109.000 € 155.000

Figure 3. Typical housing ensemble in Pendrecht. Photo by Topaas in Flickr.

Figure 4: General view of Pendrecht. Source: www.kei-cen-trum.nl

Figure 2 Original 1950s plan for Pen-drecht. Source: Gemeente Rotterdam.

I am an old-school planner. I was trained to do my job and there-fore I believe I am fully capacitated to take the right decisions. I believe in the power of the government to make people’s lives better. In order to achieve that, comprehensive planning is the best tool we have at our disposal. By planning carefully and in a detailed way, we will achieve good results for all. I like the traditional ways of organising the work. I am the chief planner; therefore I expect my subordinates will listen to my instructions. We strive for the general good and some-times I have the feeling we are more concerned about the public than the elected members of our government. Our adversaries are greedy investors who would ruin our city with huge shopping centres and weird ideas about mixed housing.

the traditional planner

I believe in participation. Democracy is the most important tool for real progress, because real progress IS democracy. You might wonder what that means. Let’s say that by encouraging people to participate in decision-making, I widen the possibility of those people to share the gains of urban de-velopment. But most importantly, along the way they will acquire the knowl-edge and the tools to take a stronger stance in urban development and will be able to articulate solutions that bene�t all. This is an important aspect of my profession and it is called democracy building. The process is as important as the �nal outcomes. Of course, in order to do all this, I must have great commu-nication skills. I need to communicate complex ideas to people who have had no training. But don’t be fooled: their knowledge is as important as the knowl-edge of professionals and I need to be able to help them articulate it. On the other hand, I also need to facilitate communication that will allow consensus building among di�erent stakeholders with very disparate interests.

the communicative planner

I am a strategic planner. My objective is to develop strategies that will bene�t all, but I am aware that elected politicians are the legitimate representatives of the people. This is why I work hard to seduce them with engaging visions and appealing scenarios, to guide their actions. I think planners must appeal to other professionals working with the city in order to formulate these visions. But sometimes I feel these professionals are not very practical. We need to engage investors as well, and the best way to do this is to o�er investors op-portunities via large urban projects. I �nd that large urban projects are the best tool to mobilise political and economic action. They are also an e�ective way to intervene in the spatial con�guration of a city. These projects compose spatial strategies, with which we will achieve agreed goals.

the strategic planner

I am a manager planner. I feel very close to my colleagues who call themselves “strategists”. I believe it is all about having an e�ective strategy for urban de-velopment. But we will not have e�ective strategies if we cannot manage our relationship with investors and the private sector in general. We cannot deny that money is an essential factor: nothing can be achieved without invest-ment. Who will pay for this, is generally my �rst question. But let’s not forget that we are acting in bene�t of the public. In order to do so, we need to listen to several actors, in an organised way, making use of the democratic instru-ments we have at our disposal. It is important that we keep public participa-tion, but we need to manage it in a way that allows us to continue to be e�-cient. Too much participation can be disruptive and we don’t have that much time.

the manager planner

I like to call myself a market planner. It is not so much that I am working FOR the market. Rather, I am trying to realise projects within the sphere of eco-nomic opportunity, and in order to do that, I need to engage with private actors. I am familiar with the logic of business. I feel the public needs to accept co-responsibility for the city’s development and it is my responsibility to create close relationships between the parties with the necessary resources in order to promote development. But this is done in the realm of democracy, with the legal tools at our disposal. In order to make the most of these tools, I need to articulate the contacts between decision makers and investors. I also need to propose news tools with which investors can participate in urban de-velopment in a fair way. Of course citizen participation is important, but it is crucial to manage this participation in order to avoid standstills.

the market planner

I like to call myself a process planner. This means that my main task is to create democratic processes that can integrate all relevant actors in order to make common decisions regarding the right kind of urban development. I feel that all a�ected parties should be heard or integrated in the process before deci-sions are made. Is this time consuming? Of course it is, but this is the price of true democracy. Besides, by doing that I create ownership of decisions and de-crease the prospect of our actions being contested. My main skills are commu-nication and networking. Of course I need to be a good communicator if I want to integrate non-professional actors in the planning process. I am some-thing between a pedagogue and a process consultant. As a good teacher, I rely on narratives to engage all kinds of actors, not only professional ones, and certainly not only investors. I want to involve the common citizen in decision-making. My advocacy planner friends and I work quite well together.

the process planner

I am an advocacy planner. You might wonder what that means, but let’s just say that my main objective is to defend the interest of those who don’t have a voice in urban development. We live in an unfair world. Many groups don’t have a voice in urban development (women, minorities, migrants, even chil-dren are poorly represented!). Resources are not fairly distributed. As a plan-ning professional, it is my moral duty to �ght for those who have the least, and to guaranty that they will get a fair share of the fruits of development, either by allocating resources to the areas where these people live or by �nd-ing ways to redistribute the gains. I do that by applying several new tools at my disposal, like progressive taxation or taxation of unproductive land. I accept the market society of course, but there are ways to regulate the market and to redistribute pro�t in a fair way. After all, when investors realise gains in a certain location they are generally bene�tting from infrastructures built with tax money, and all the positive externalities created by society and especially by all those around them

the advocacy planner

If you have any doubts or questions, please write to Roberto Rocco at r.c.rocco@tudelft.nl

Chair Spatial Planning and StrategyDepartment of Urbanism

Faculty of Architecture and the Built EnvironmentDelft University of Technology

Julianalaan 1342628BL Delft

The Netherlands