Fuzzy Planning: The Role of Actors in a Fuzzy Governance Environment

246 Pages·2007·1.92 MB·English

by  Gert De Roo

FUZZY PLANNING
Introducing actor-consulting as a means to address fuzziness in planning
and decision-making
And to harness the knowledge and mutual understanding of actors in an
uncertain and complex world
Fuzzy Planning
The Role of Actors in a Fuzzy Governance Environment
Edited by
GERT DE ROO
University of Groningen, The Netherlands
GEOFF PORTER
Northumbria University, UK
© Gert de Roo and Geoff Porter 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Gert de Roo and Geoff Porter have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
Gower House Suite 420
Croft Road 101 Cherry Street
Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401-4405
Hampshire GU11 3HR USA
England
Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Fuzzy planning : the role of actors in a fuzzy governance
environment
1. City plannng 2. Fuzzy decision making 3. City planning -
Case studies
I. Roo, Gert de II. Porter, Geoff
307.1'216
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fuzzy planning : the role of actors in a fuzzy governance environment / edited by Gert
de Roo and Geoff Porter.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7546-4962-5
ISBN-10: 0-7546-4962-8
1. City planning--Research. 2. City planning--Case studies. 3. Regional planning--
Research. 4. Regional planning--Case studies. 5. Sustainable development. 6. Fuzzy
logic. 7. Uncertainty. I. Roo, Gert de. II. Porter, Geoff.
HT165.5.F88 2006
307.1'216--dc22
2006021122
ISBN-13: 978-0-7546-4962-5
ISBN-10: 0-7546-4962-8
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Preface ix
1 The End has no Merit...
Geoff Porter and Gert de Roo 1
Part A Contextual Reflections
2 Re-thinking Key Dimensions of Strategic Spatial Planning:
Sustainability and Complexity
Patsy Healey 21
3 Actors in a Fuzzy Governance Environment
Karel Martens 43
4 From Government to Governance:
Actor Participation in Regional Planning
Henk Voogd and Johan Woltjer 67
5 Indicators in the Context of Fuzzy Planning
Donald Miller 85
Part B The Actor-Consulting Model
6 Shifts in Planning Practice and Theory: From a
Functional Towards a Communicative Rationale
Gert de Roo 103
7 Understanding Fuzziness in Planning
Gert de Roo 115
8 Actor-Consulting: A Model to Handle Fuzziness
in Planning
Gert de Roo 131
vi Fuzzy Planning
Part C Case Studies
9 Sustainability through Information in the County of Viborg
Geoff Porter, Finn Larsen and Lone Kørnøv and Per Christensen 153
10 Policy Life Cycles:
Cultural Heritage in the Dutch Wadden Sea Region
Rob de Boer 165
11 Policy Appraisal and Sustainable Development in the North East
Region of England
Geoff Porter 175
12 Sustainable Urban Renewal: Opportunities for
Drenthe Province
Dana Kamphorst 191
13 Sustainable Urban Water Management:
Opportunities for the Province of Drenthe
Rob de Boer 205
14 An Evaluation of Sustainable Housing Policy in a
Trans-Provincial Region of the Netherlands
Geoff Porter and Frans Osté 217
Index 229
List of Figures
Figure 1.1 The basis of the actor-consulting model; the
desired, present and potential contributions 12
Figure 2.1 An integrated policy agenda, as conceptualised in
the European Spatial Development Perspective 24
Figure 2.2 Dominant and recessive discourses in British planning 26
Figure 2.3 A conception of a system 28
Figure 2.4 ‘Error-controlled regulation’ 29
Figure 2.5 The multiplex city 30
Figure 3.1 The ‘governance triangle’ 48
Figure 3.2 The position of early fuzzy modes within
the ‘governance triangle’ 50
Figure 3.3 Possible consequences of a lack of attention for the fuzzy
character of governance processes 55
Figure 3.4 The position of four governance modes distinguished
by Woltjer (2000) within the governance triangle 58
Figure 4.1 North-Holland South plan area 75
Figure 6.1 Technical planning processes 110
Figure 6.2 Scenario planning processes 111
Figure 6.3 The communicative/participatory planning process 112
Figure 7.1 Development and progress in planning theory and practice 116
Figure 7.2 Orientation and focus of mainstream approaches in planning 117
Figure 8.1 Willingness and competence as indicators for successful
policy implementation 138
Figure 8.2 The basis of the actor-consulting model; the desired,
present and potential contributions 141
Figure 8.3 The actor-consulting model, including the different
types of regulation 142
Figure 8.4 The full representation of the policy model 143
Figure 8.5 The planning circle and the actor-consulting model 144
Figure 8.6 The planning circle, the actor-consulting model and
the informative role indicators can play 145
Figure 8.7 Planning processes for each of the four categories in planning 148
Figure 9.1 GIS presentation illustrating the concentration
of nitrates in recently-formed groundwater 155
Figure 10.1 The Dutch Wadden Sea Region 166
Figure 10.2 The policy life cycle as proposed by Winsemius (1986) 167
viii Fuzzy Planning
Figure 10.3 The policy life cycle and the attention from
society and politics (derived from Winsemius 1986) 172
Figure 10.4 Scenery of the Wadden Sea Region 173
Figure 11.1 Diagram showing the location of Newcastle Great Park 179
Figure 11.2 Construction of housing at Newcastle Great Park 185
Figure 11.3 Sustainable urban drainage: design feature at
Newcastle Great Park 186
Figure 12.1 Urban renewal program ‘Emmen revisited’ by the
municipality of Emmen 194
Figure 14.1 The Region-Vision area 218
Figure 14.2 Reconstruction site of a post-war neighbourhood 222
List of Tables
Table 5.1 Indicators of Sustainable Community – Sustainable Seattle 92
Table 9.1 Actors consulted in the Viborg County case study 158
Table 10.1 Interviewees participating in the actor-consulting project 168
Table 11.1 Links between case study theme and
Newcastle City corporate strategies 178
Table 11.2 Actors taking part in the Newcastle case study 180
Table 11.3 Extract from the results database 183
Table 12.1 Actors taking part in the Drenthe Urban Renewal Study 193
Table 13.1 Responsibilities of the main actors in urban
water management 207
Preface
This preface has been necessitated by the sudden death of my co-author, co-editor,
appreciated colleague and friend Geoff Porter. As such it can also be regarded as an
‘In Memoriam’.
Geoff Porter died of a heart attack on 30 August 2006, aged 53, and totally
unexpectedly, while on holiday with his family, and while ‘Fuzzy Planning’ was still
in the preparatory phases for publication.
I first met Geoff about seven or eight years ago. We were involved with an
Interreg EU project on ‘sustainable planning at the regional level’. Geoff was project
leader, but rather new to the field. Three parties were involved in the collaboration.
There were the Danes from Viborg whose basic interest was in farms, pigs and pig
manure with an eye to controlling groundwater pollution. Then there were the Dutch
from the province of Drenthe, who wanted to improve their already quite advanced,
comprehensive regional plan. Finally there were the British from Newcastle upon
Tyne, just there to learn. Geoff told me that the UK did not have a functioning regional
body, one of the legacies of the Margaret Thatcher era. One thing I never quite got
straight was whether it was the British who had a desire to learn, or just Geoff…
The project ended two years later, with the Danes from Viborg still interested in only
one thing – groundwater-polluting pigs – while the Dutch and the British felt there
was actually more to it than that. I am not sure whether this was based on content or
the fact that Geoff and I really enjoyed working together. Geoff in particular turned
out to be a wonderful mediator. He was always able to consider the positive side of
things. While I persisted in considering controlling the Viborg pigs as not the real
issue in the project, Geoff constantly showed me their value as a case study. Once the
project was over, we decided that we wanted to keep on working together and turn
the Interreg project into a book. It has taken us four years to complete it, and here
it is, two months after Geoff’s death. We were able to find outstanding planners to
contribute to this book, but it goes without saying that it was Geoff who invited our
Viborg colleagues to join in too…
The book is called ‘Fuzzy Planning’. The message in this book is to become
aware of our preoccupations when considering various aspects of and in planning.
The most profound example is sustainability. We all think we know what it means,
but the moment it becomes operational we realise that that is far from true. ‘Fuzzy
Planning’ tells us we have to understand that we are not as sure of anything as we
think we are. That applies not only to planning but also to our individual lives. Real
life is fuzzy, full of the unexpected!