This book aims to identify ways of overcoming the limitations of the communicative tradition in understanding participatory spatial planning. Three conceptual models that offer different perspectives on public and civic participation in complex urban planning processes are presented and reviewed: the consensual model, which conceives of planning as a collective decision-making practice geared toward consensus building and conflict resolution; the conflictual model, which views planning as a social mobilization practice addressed at empowerment of marginalized groups; and the trading zone model, which reframes collaborative planning as a coordination activity with respect to practical proposals in the presence of unstable and conflicting rationalities and values. The controversial story of the Integrated Intervention Program “PII Isola Lunetta” in Milan is examined through the interpretative lenses of these models, with detailed interpretation of how each model performs in the field. The book concludes by offering critical reflections on the reframing of participatory spatial planning, highlighting the value of trading zones/trading languages and boundary objects as tools for understanding and addressing collaborative practices in complex and conflictual urban planning processes.

Activist planning shows how communities, neighbourhoods and social movements use their own alternative spatial planning to oppose interventions from the government. This book is a systematic overview of scholarly reported activist planning cases. It includes descriptions of the various kinds of activist planning and contains a comprehensive bibliography of academic publications related to the 164 cases. The book informs the planning community what activist planning is in practice, and offers a classification scheme where all reported cases fit in. This text is needed because no comprehensive collection of activist planning cases exists, nor does a classification comprising all types of activist planning. There is, to date, no database of cases and associated literature providing researchers and students with an authoritative source. The search for cases in the English language has been global, and the cases and 122 supplementary examples are sorted by country and world region ‒ Australasia, Europe, the Global South and North America.

The book discusses the concept of the smart city, and is based on a multi-service and multi-sectoral approach to urban planning, including various urban functions and the human capital of cities. The work is divided into three parts. The first is an introductory section which covers definitions, policies and tools used at European level for the development and classification of a smart city. The second presents a selection of examples of Western and Eastern communities, which experienced technologies and strategies that have made them smart. The third describes in detail the main three possible approaches (economical, technological and social) to the smart city concept which are the focus ambits of the holistic concept of smart city. The work provides a good overview of the concept of smart city, and also offers a critical analysis of the various approaches to smart cities, in order to provide tools to develop solutions that address the smart development of cities with an approach as multi-sectoral as possible. Its accessible language and several examples make the book easy to read and appealing to public administrators, students, planners and researchers.

The days of rationalist scientific management and deference to official data are behind us. The credibility of experts and the information they provide are regularly challenged; officials are routinely provided with conflicting sets of facts as they plan and make decisions; and decision makers and stakeholders alike are largely skeptical that technical information will adequately account for the various interests and concerns and lead to the right outcomes. They struggle to reconcile technical information with other forms of knowledge, and differing interests, priorities and perspectives. Issues like climate change are complicating matters even further, as scientists and technicians must increasingly acknowledge the uncertainty and potential fallibility of their findings, and highlight the dynamic nature of the systems they are explaining. This book examines how groups looking to plan and make decisions in any number of areas can wade through the imperfect and often contradictory information they have to make fair, efficient, wise and well-informed choices. It introduces an emerging and very promising approach called joint fact-finding (JFF). Rather than each stakeholder group marshaling the set of facts that best advance their respective interests and perspectives while discrediting the contradictory facts others provide, groups are challenged to collaboratively generate shared sets of facts that all parties accept. This book introduces readers to the theory of JFF, the value it can provide, and how they can adopt this approach in practice. It brings together writings from leading practitioners and scholars from around the world that are at the forefront of the JFF approach to science intensive policymaking, urban planning, and environmental dispute resolution. The first set of chapters outlines the concept of JFF, and situates it within other bodies of theory and practice. The second set of case-based chapters elucidates how JFF is being applied in practice. This book delivers a new perspective to scholars in the field of public policy, urban planning, environmental studies, and science and technology studies, as well as public officials, technical experts, policy consultants, and professional facilitators.

This handbook on group decision-making for those wanting to operate in a consensus fashion stresses the advantages of informal, common sense approaches to working together. It describes how any group can put these approaches into practice, and relates numerous examples of situations in which such approaches have been applied.

The impact of environmental damage on human rights - civil, political or welfare and labour rights - is becoming ever-more widely appreciated and has direct bearing on the behaviour of companies and their norms of conduct. In this volume, contributors draw on the tools and insights of a range of disciplines, including law, anthropology, economics, geography and social science, to analyze the issues and show how new standards that protect rights and liberties can be established.

A step-by-step guide connecting theory to practice Environmental Conflict Management introduces students to the research and practice of environmental conflict and provides a step-by-step process for engaging stakeholders and other interested parties in the management of environmental disputes. In each chapter, authors Dr. Tracylee Clarke and Dr. Tarla Rai Peterson first introduce a specific concept or process step and then provide exercises, worksheets, role-plays, and brief case studies so students can directly apply what they are learning. The appendix includes six additional extended case studies for further analysis. In addition to providing practical steps for understanding and managing conflict, the text identifies the most relevant laws and policies to help students make more informed decisions. Students will develop techniques for public involvement and community outreach, strategies for effective meeting management, approaches to negotiating options and methodologies for communicating concerns and working through differences, and outlines for implementing and evaluating strategies for sustaining positive community relations.