Planning in uncharted waters: spatial transformations, planning transitions and role-reflexive planning

For planners, processes of complex spatial transformations today are comparable to uncharted land and an uncertain voyage. Many possible role images overlap and contrast to traditional and established ways of thinking and acting. The focus here is on navigating instead of controlling, about supporting instead of enforcing. Planning lacks tools to think and act when facing uncertainty. This paper proposes role-reflexive planning as an educational and experimental approach to thinking through different potentialities. It offers groundwork from the boundary between planning and transition studies, using role-based ideas as a bridge. It offers an overview about different roles that are relevant to working towards transformations as spatial planners. It develops an account of role-reflexive planning that connects between contexts, actions and back to individual modes of behaviour in planning processes. As a basis, this paper condenses experiences of a role-playing pilot workshop and discussions about potential elements of a transition towards "post-growth planning". It outlines how role-playing challenges the individual roles of actors beyond the game situations themselves. Conceptual ideas foster a renewed role-based debate on thinking and acting in the face of uncertainty and ways to navigate through the stormy waters of transformation.Prozesse komplexer räumlicher Transformationen sind für Planer vergleichbar mit einem unerforschten Land oder einer ungewissen Reise. Viele mögliche Rollenverständnisse überlagern sich und stehen traditionellen und etablierten Denk- und Handlungsweisen gegenüber. Dabei geht es um Navigieren statt Kontrollieren, um Unterstützen statt Durchsetzen. In der Planung fehlen hingegen geeignete Werkzeuge, um bei Unsicherheit zu denken und zu handeln. Dieser Beitrag arbeitet rollenreflexive Planung als pädagogischen und experimentellen Ansatz heraus. Er bietet Grundlagen an der Schnittstelle von räumlicher Planung zur Transitionsforschung unter Verwendung rollenbasierter Ideen als Brücke. Er enthält einen Überblick über unterschiedliche Rollenverständnisse, die für Planung für und mit Transformationen für Planer relevant sind. Er entwickelt eine rollenreflexive Planung, die zwischen Kontext und Handlungen vermittelt sowie mit individuellem Verhalten in Planungsprozessen verbindet. Als Grundlage arbeitet der Beitrag Erfahrungen aus einem Rollenspiel in einem Pilotworkshop zur Transition zu einer Postwachstumsplanung auf. Er umreißt, wie Rollenspiele die eigenen Rollen von Akteuren über die individuelle Spielsituation hinaus herausfordern. Konzeptionelle Ideen fördern eine erneuerte rollenbasierte Debatte über Denken und Handeln unter Unsicherheit und Wege, durch stürmische Gewässer von Transformationen zu navigieren

Becoming a post-growth planner

Societal goals in housing, climate change, biodiversity, and circular economies confront spatial planning practice with multiple growth-related crises. For example, the supply of housing does not meet the market demand, but developing more housing reaches limits in terms of sustainability, available land, building materials, and CO2 emissions. Spatial planners often continue to organise growth or aim to cope with growth. Confronting planners with normative post-growth directions unveils a multiplicity of reactions and helps to understand potential pathways to remove the strong focus on growth from spatial planning

Factors influencing day-to-day planning: protest – cooperation – indifference?

Current planning debates are characterised by the tension between political and societal goals on the one hand and questions of local implementation on the other. The general public and individual citizens are core elements of any planning process, with their level of involvement in day-to-day planning ranging from protests to cooperation to indifference. There are gaps in our knowledge about which factors affect planning stipulations in everyday practice. Using empirical data gathered in basic research on German municipalities of all sizes, this article develops an exploratory comparison of the planning challenges posed by the energy transition and the integration of major accident prevention in urban land-use planning. It identifies differences, the significance of internal and external influencing factors, and starting points to pave the way to better cooperation in daily planning activities

Becoming a post-growth planner

Societal goals in housing, climate change, biodiversity, and circular economies confront spatial planning practice with multiple growth-related crises. For example, the supply of housing does not meet the market demand, but developing more housing reaches limits in terms of sustainability, available land, building materials, and CO2 emissions. Spatial planners often continue to organise growth or aim to cope with growth. Confronting planners with normative post-growth directions unveils a multiplicity of reactions and helps to understand potential pathways to remove the strong focus on growth from spatial planning