Narratives of power: bringing ideology to the fore of planning analysis

This Special Issue starts from the premise that the concept of ideology holds significant analytical potential for planning but that this potential can only be realised if ideology is brought to the fore of analysis. By naming ideology and rendering it visible, we hope to bring it out from the shadows and into the open to examine its value and what it can tell us about the politics of contemporary planning. The papers in this Special Issue therefore seek to contribute to established academic debates by exploring some of the ways ideology can be deployed as a tool in the analysis of planning problems. This article introduces the Special Issue by exploring the various accounts in the papers of i. what ideology is; ii. what its effects are; iii. where ideology may be identified and iv. what different theories of ideology can tell us about planning. There inevitably remain many un-answered questions, paths not taken and debates left unaddressed. We hope other scholars will be inspired (or provoked) to address these omissions in the future

The new planning, and the new planner: Modernisation, culture change and the regulation of professional identities in English local planning

Reforms to the English planning system introduced from 2001 by the New Labour government under the rubric of "modernisation" have made a series of claims to revitalise planning as a governmental and professional activity. In order to realise the ambitious goals of reform there have been widespread calls for a "culture change", particularly amongst professional planners in the public sector. The discourse of culture change is rooted in the managerialist thinking that has been central to long-term processes of state restructuring, and suggests a concern to regulate the attitudes and identities of workers. The thesis aims to interrogate the claims that have been made for a reformed planning system and practice. In so doing it seeks to uncover the cultural politics of modernisation, assessing the ways in which the discourses of reform have targeted and sought to change local planning cultures and planners' roles and identities. It therefore opens up identity as an analytical lens for assessing the modernisation of planning. I argue that the modemisation agenda has been marked by a series of tensions, simultaneously positioning planners as the agents of modernisation, but also as objects to be modernised. Reform has therefore imposed a considerable burden on planners as they seek to understand what is expected of them, and negotiate their professional identities in the midst of a complex set of changes that have intensified the demands of their practice. This suggests the need for greater attentiveness to the lived experience of processes of reform, and its impacts on those charged with realising change

A contribution to epidemiology : the incidence of epidemic disease among troops and civilians in a war zone, with particular reference to diarrhoeal diseases

It was through a retreating rabble of disorganised infantry, who had flung away rifles and all military accoutrements in their retiral, that the British Troops, early in November 1917, marched up to the forward area on the Italian front.To anyone not acquainted with all the circumstances of the case, and particularly if one is ignorant of the Italian temperament, the retreat of the Italian Army, which started from the sector round the little Alpine village of Caporetto on 24th October 1917, is well-nigh in explicable. All the more so if one knew what prodigies o f valour they had accomplished since th eir entry into the World War on 24th May 1915 - their final war of the "Risorgimento" with all it meant to the Italian idealist longing for the fulfilment of Garibaldi’s dream of "Italia Redenta" - Italy Redeemed.In their first rush after declaring war, the Italians had carried their 300 mile front of high Alps into Austrian territory. Monte Sabatino, an almost impregnable mountain, together with a devastating outbreak of Cholera (14,000 cases with a mortality of 46%) delayed the capture of Gorizia until August 1916 by an offensive on a gigantic scale on the Isonzo and Carso on terrain whose immense difficulties must be seen to be believed. The Carso in particular, a vast limestone table land in which trenches had to be blasted, without shade or shelter and practically waterless, was a fit scene for warfare such as only a Dante could conceive.And yet step by step on the Carso and Isonzo and the Higher Alps, the Italian advance forged slowly on though at terrible cost, with Trieste as the objective.Further great offensives from Plava and Gorizia during May to September in 1917 with victories at Monte Kuk, Monte Santo, San Gabriele and on the Bainsizza plateau, saw the Italians reach the highwater mark of their successes.And then this wonderful army which had done impossibly brave things, performed engineering and mountaineering feats almost incredible, suddenly collapsed. The depths o f the Caporetto disaster were possible only because the Italian Army was capable of such wonderful heights.Over two years had been spent in the trenches amid in credible hardships and dangers: skilful diffusion of enemy propaganda acted with volcanic effect on volatile temperaments already further depressed by news of the hardships endured by the women and children at home. To crown all the sector at Caporetto was held by regiments which had shortly before received large drafts of disaffected pacifist strikers from the commercial cities of central Italy.The military genius of Ludendorff chose the psychological place and time, and thus it was that in November 1917 French and British troops, hastily withdrawn from the western front, found themselves marching up to the Italian front through retreating troops who had shed the last vestige of their morale.The Caporetto disaster and all that followed disorganised not only the fighting portion of the Italian Army, but all the administrative services as well, including of course the medical service.Large numbers of hospitals with all their equipment and innumerable medical officers with their staffs were captured or lost during those dark days; and when the reorganisation of the Italian Army took place, this loss both of personnel and material was difficult to replace.More civilian practitioners had to be called up to replace these numerous casualties and this undoubtedly affected adversely the civilian population who were left with an in sufficient number of overworked doctors.Add to this the tremendous congestion in the Zona di Guerra caused by the presence not only of most of the original poorer inhabitants, but of considerable numbers of refugees from the occupied territory, and the presence too of vast numbers of troops - Italian, French and British - and the wonder is that the incidence of epidemic disease was not infinitely greater than it turned out to be

Jihad and Hashtags: Women\u27s Roles in the Islamic State and Pro-Jihadist Social Networks

Over a one-year period from January 2015 to January 2016, a team of researchers collected nearly 100,000 Tweets from female operated Twitter accounts that exhibited pro-Islamic State (IS) affiliations. The following exploratory research paper aims to address two questions: (1) will identifiable patterns of engagement be revealed through a thematic analysis of Tweets posted by pro-IS women?, and (2) do these patterns illuminate the roles pro-IS women occupy online and in real-time social networks? This research paper intends to challenge the gendered assumption that women play strictly supportive roles within the boundaries of the IS, and demonstrate that IS female supporters fulfill multiple roles in online and real-time social networks. This paper will outline the eight roles identified using a thematic content analysis of pro-IS women’s Tweets. The main findings reveal that pro-IS women primarily fulfill supportive roles, but that they also play a variety of non-traditional roles as well, such as recruiters and even terrorists. This knowledge of how women are using Twitter to support the IS, and the roles they play online and in real-time social networks, can be used to develop more effective counterterrorism strategies to deter the radicalization and recruitment of individuals online

Thinking conjuncturally about ideology, housing and English planning

This paper explores the value of Stuart Hall’s approach to conjunctural analysis for examining the complex relations between ideology and planning. By “thinking conjuncturally” we explore planning as a site where multiple social, economic and political forces coalesce; ideology is one of these forces whose role and influence must be tracked alongside others. To illustrate this we draw on recent and ongoing planning reforms in England and their relationship with housing development. Highlighting the faltering role of a particular ideological formation in ‘suturing together contradictory lines of argument and emotional investments’ (Hall, 2011, 713) around housing and planning, the paper draws attention to planning as a space where ideological struggle takes place within the frame of a broader, contingent cultural hegemony. This struggle may help to reaffirm that hegemony but it can also open space for alternative visions to be articulated, with potential to transform dominant logics of planning and reveal routes to practical and progressive action