THE FIRST TIME AS TRAGEDY: THE SECOND AS FARCE

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THE FIRST TIME AS TRAGEDY THE SECOND AS FARCE?

• Planning and the Sustainable City
• John Lovering
• Professor of Urban Development and Governance
• CPLAN

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This lecture is about the crisis of urban
governance/planning...

• From the principle of a commitment to
• (1) seeking ways to build an economically,
  socially and environmentally sustainable future
• (2) counteracting private Affluence Vs Public
  squalor (J.K.Galbraith)
• (3) engaging citizens in shaping their urban
  destinies
• To a set of ideas, institutions and practices
  that
• (1) legitimise and institutionalise inequalities
  between citizens, and
• (2) pay only tokenistic regard to environmental
  unsustainability, while
• (3) obscure the political nature of the choices,
  and the likely outcomes, from view and resistance

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Themes

• 1. The rise and fall of urban planning
• 2. The background Neo-liberalism
• 3. The gloomy C21 urban future
• 4. Cardiff - a fairly typical case
• 5. The crisis in ideas

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Catalhuyuk The first Planned town? (but for
Gods, not people)
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The city as defended civilisation for a Pre-Greek
Aristocracy Troia 1,300 BCE
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Troia in 2005 - what will be left of todays
cities 5,000 years from now?
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Victorian ideas of planning as part of a grand
holistic vision Patrick Geddes schema (1905)
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(Rural-urban migration accounts for about 40 of
urban growth)
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The rise and fall of planning

• The era of welfare nationalism
• Plannings optimistic heyday, countervailing the
  spatial inequalities of unregulated urbanisation
• The neo-liberal onslaught 1976-97
• Planning declines to fiddling on the margins
• Late neo-liberalism 1997-present
• Planning revitalised as part of the attempt to
  congeal neo-liberal policy into sustainability
  to create neo-liberal space?

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Post-war reconstruction triggers plannings
optimistic heyday Dresden during and after WW2
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The city of London 1945
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Planning a liveable urbanism Howards
garden-cities set in planned regions
Britains Arch-Modernist Planner Patrick
Abercrombie becoming Sir Patrick 1945
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High hopes were shared... briefly...
Maureen Waller London 1945
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... until it unravelled.. the shambles of
suburbia, and bad planning, on the periphery...
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.. and in the centre. By the 60s UK planning
was subordinate to property developers
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So Abercrombie's long-term ambition to update
Wrens grand vision dissolved before the Citys
short-term rush to make money
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Conficting interpretations

• CIAM architecture as rational design of urban
  machines to correspond to functions (work,
  residence, recreation, transport)
• scientifically re-building space to reflect a
  conflict free world
• Radicals modern planning as fetishising the
  object, the spectacle over people, hiding
  conflict
• Guy Debord architecture is the point where the
  hidden power of the dominant society imposes
  itself most directly and yet in a way that is
  unnoticed.

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The official verdict (Peter Hall)

• It achieved much, but we must be more modest in
  our aspirations in future....

social progress has left behind .. A problem of
what the Victorians .. Called the vicious,
degenerate and semi-criminal classes.. The
disadvantaged and underprivileged. Planning has
failed to dislodge it..
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Urban planning for the C21st the official agenda

• A new Golden Age is a-coming
• the essence is this .. As Manuel Castells has
  put it, we are moving from an industrial era to
  an informational age Peter Hall 1998
• So, the New Model City planning must focus on
• information flows
• global networks
• visible physical regeneration
• and since in the Informational/Knowledge Economy
  the smart Vs the non-smart will be the new
  Haves Vs the Have-nots, we should add-on
  measures for social inclusion

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2 THE UNSPOKEN PREMISE NEO-LIBERALISM

• Neo-liberal ideas
• Humans have a tendency to self-generating and
  sustaining systems(Hayek)
• (Note the irony at same time environmentalism
  argues we now face chaotic systems and must
  consciously create conditions to restore
  homeostasis/Gaia)
• In practice
• An ambitious social engineering project to create
  society and personality types conducive to making
  markets work
• by reconstructing State and Civil Society to
  replace solidarities with market-relations
  (commodification)
• switching public subsidies from people to firms..
• re-education for a business culture, etc

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Neo-liberalism is protean..

• The details and local rhetoric vary widely with
  context
• Fundamentalist Christian corporate in USA,
• Islamic in Turkey
• Communist in China
• post-Social-democratic Third way in Britain
• (..The remarkable tolerance of the global
  system to multiple forms of integration to it
  Outhwaite and Ray 2005 p199)
• But all share cognitive and normative elements
• imperatives of competitiveness, finance, etc
• some common policy components (innovation,
  skills..)
• some convergence in outcomes (inequalities,
  property boom, urban regeneration styles..)

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City authorities increasingly use public money to
advertise themselves
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.. getting bigger headlines than the bad news
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Its global
Have you noticed how blue the sky is? (Its
thanks to) Istanbul Municipality
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Istanbul municipality advertises itself along
with its new Global-style Modern art Gallery
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The return of the Spectacle the fetish of the
Gaze

• The emphasis on asset values and property, and
  on symbolic politics, converges in citizenship
  redefined in terms of shared consumption of the
  Visual
• The visual urban landscape moves to centre place
  in urban Strategy
• the creation of a global market brings forth
  global branded architects
• .. and a new era of very tall buildings

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British early Neo-liberalism Canary Wharf 1980s
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Cesar Pellis Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur
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Shanghai
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Worlds tallest Taipei
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The Twin Towers replacement
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Even where there is no tradition of skyscrapers
Burj Al Arab Dubai
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Latest target for skyscraper proliferation
Istanbul
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London Towers of power from C12th to the C21st
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Renzo Pianos proposed shard of glass over
London Bridge Stn
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Celtic Copycat The U2 tower Dublin
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.. not to be left out Cardiff
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Curious how Neo-Liberal conformity echoes
Stalinism....?
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Not all major new buildings are skyscrapers but
they have to be iconic
Beijing Olympics 2008
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Frank Gerhys wiggly buildings Bibao and the
Disney Hall, LA
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Will Alsops proposed Third Grace for Liverpool
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To be taken seriously youve got to have a Global
Architect (Richard Rogers in Cardiff)
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What Planning thinks about, then and now..

• Planning the Good City (Geddes etc)
• Mankinds nature and its best environment
• Work and Play
• Nurturing inclusiveness, empowerment
• Local specificities
• Centre and peripheries together
• Scaled to the Human-body

• Planning the Neo-liberal city
• Market demands
• Consumption
• The car
• Global competition
• High-profile visual icons
• The city centre as showcase and catwalk
• Tourists and foreign investors

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Neo-liberal planning practice

• From purpose (goals) to means (process).
• Preparing for Competitiveness
• Spatial Planning Frameworks
• Authorising boosterism
• planning is there to prepare the land for
  neoliberal markets
• Securing consent
• Communicative Planning
• Participative Planning
• Advocacy Planning etc
• planning is there to secure a common discourse

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The neo-liberal theocracy

• Prophets (bringing the Word from Above)
• Friedrich von Hayek, Carl Schmidt, Leo Strauss,
  etc
• Theologians (translating and codifying the
  message for Today)
• Giddens, Castells, Leadbeater, Mulgan...
• Priests/Imams (explaining how to put it into your
  everyday practice)
• Global M. Porter R. Florida,
• EU M. Parkinson
• UK Local Futures
• Wales P. Cooke, etc
• Pamphleteers (spreading the word to the masses)
• Journalists, Teachers, etc

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Q Why are these (bad) ideas found everywhere?

• A Policy ideas are now commodities in a global
  market for ideas
• The Customers
• State proliferation and devolution have created
  1000s more units of (myopic) governance since
  1990s
• Local authorities, City managers, Regional
  bodies (35,000 in EU alone)
• The Suppliers
• Academics, policy entrepreneurs,
  consultants...

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Britains leading policy thinker (he says)
Geoff Mulgan What cities need is to be centres
of connexity
World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow,
ranked in 2004 as one of the UKs 100 leading
public intellectuals. 1997-2004 director of the
Governments Strategy Unit and head of policy in
the Prime Ministers office.
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The result a similar story everywhere e.g. All
Chinese cities will now promote cultural
industries FT 1 Nov. 05
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A local example how to play urban
follow-my-leader

• The shift to Boosterism Urban governance and
  strategy defined from above by the politically
  powerful but clueless
• .. purchasing the required rhetoric and gloss of
  authority from ideas salesmen, with a University
  logo

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Inserting neo-liberal prejudices into everyday
perceptions local examples
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Local Imam preaches in local pamphlet Since
globalisation is the only game that matters,
Cardiff must try harder P.Cooke in Western
Mail 23 November 2005
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Reality check Global trends accompanying
neo-liberalism

• Economic slow-down (GDP per.cap now 1/3 of 1960s)
• Stagnating or declining sustainable welfare or
  perceived real income Growth in trade
  disconnected from GDP
• Investment shifted from long-term and
  productivity to short term and property
• Chronic shortage of employment opportunities, and
  thence rising inequalities
• Global reversal of resource flows from north to
  South, urban to rural
• Greatly accelerated urbanisation
• Environmentally unsustainable growth patterns

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Spot the Golden Age
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The return of inequalities
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Economic growth stopped improving the quality of
life at about the time neo-liberalism arived
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Global warming
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What really makes cities grow? Neo-liberal slogan
Vs reality

• The Myth
• global linkages exports and inward investment,
  smartness, Knowledge economy, cultural
  industries, etc (competitiveness)
• The Evidence
• flight from the countryside where its worse
• self-propelling internal urban motors of growth
• collective consumption and production of
  services, esp. public services
• recent British employment growth driven mainly by
  Public Sector
• global finance sector in London has been losing
  jobs

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What the consultants never tell you most of the
new jobs in UK cities have come from the public
sector
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Where Cardiffs new jobs have come from (where is
competitiveness?)
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3 OUR ALARMING URBAN FUTURE

• 1. Current growth patterns cant last
• the global housing market boom
• escalating credit and debt
• 2. Current policies stir explosive tensions
• permanent job shortages
• inequalities of income and respect (Sennet)
• the urban is the new theatre of war (9/11,
  7/7...)
• 3. An urban environmental crisis is imminent
• impossible urban energy demands
• mega-cities as disease factories
• Crucibles of viral evolution (AIDS, SARS,
  H5N1...)
• China 3 million deaths from urban air pollution
  over two years

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The sudden proliferation of mega-cities
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Our nearest mega-city Istanbul
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While planners dream of maps, cities sprawl
explosively (West Istanbul 2006)
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Where its happening fastest China - Urbanisation
and polarisation
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China as a whole is becoming much more unequal
Including within its cities Shanghai (Ya Ping
Wang)
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Urban unemployment in China has grown steadily
throughout the neo-liberalising era 1978-
Unemployed migrant workers 2005
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And its not likely to get much better in the
near future (Projections of average income in
China based on early-2000s growth rates of GDP
and populations)
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Sustainable cities...what we should be planning
for

• Social-cultural
• Civilisation a territorial dimension to
  community
• Minimise inequalities of income, wealth, safety,
  health
• Maximum sharing of decision-making, open debate
  over goals and means
• Employment quality and equality, collective
  projects, democracy, Respect (Richard Sennett)

• Material
• Compactness
• Minimise energy use, the car, external dependence
  
• Maximise solar/renewables, recycling,
  walkability, eco-housing, local demand and supply
  (inc. food), local recycling of capital, etc)
• Localisation self-sufficiency,
  De-globalisation, localisationetc
• See Worldwatch 1999

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What neo-liberal development actually means the
opposite

• Indefinite urban sprawl (e.g. European Spatial
  Development Strategy for Mega-cities)
• Inequalities legitimated and written into the
  urban physical fabric
• Individualisation and the denigration of
  collective needs and interests (e.g. survival)
• Wildly unsustainable eco-footprints
• Coercion, surveillance, militarization of urban
  space
• Social integration through a fetish of the
  visual Gaze (the pseudo-democracy of the
  Spectacle)

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The British government addresses the problem.. ?

• Sustainable Communities are
• Active, inclusive and safe
• Well run
• Environmentally sensitive
• Well designed and built
• Well connected
• Thriving
• Well served
• Fair for everyone
• ODPM 2006 What is a sustainable Community?

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4 CARDIFF THE GLOBAL IN THE LOCAL

• An exemplar of the orthodoxy
• 1993 adopts generic analysis premised on
  neo-liberal rhetoric
• Need to be competitive, to be the centre of a
  city-region, to display indicators of
  competitiveness (theatres, high-tech industry,
  shopping malls, etc), to talk itself up etc
• 1993-2006 experiences generic development
• Becomes more consumer-glamorous, but also more
  ordinary, like everywhere else

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.. Cardiff 2006 private affluence, public
make-overs, P.R.
Sovereign Quay and Caroline St
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Planning for Competitiveness turns out to mean
being flexible to whatever happens along.
The Future is Offices! (2000)...
... The Future is luxury flats! (2005)
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Planning for competitiveness means whatever you
can persuade a developer to do.
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Old public housing, new private fortresses
Butetown 2006
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(No Transcript)
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Planning means diverting attention through
Spectacle
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But what matters most about a city is what you
cant see. It takes community (and a lot of drink
and drugs) to make the physical environment of
Cardiff liveable in Justin Kerrigans Human
Traffic 1999 (not mentioned in official Cardiff
marketing)
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5 THE CRISIS IN PLANNING IDEAS

• Urban Planning practice
• playing a (the?) key role in extending
  neo-liberal governance around the globe

• Urban Planning thought
• polarised between
• non-committal detachment (post-Modern academic
  distancing)
• direct encouragement (neo-Modernist engagement)

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How to make neo-liberalism invisible..

• 1. Subjectivist postmodernism
• Reductionist privileging of Difference (Anthony
  Easthope)
• Empirical celebration and hypostatising of
  Identity rather than examining it (Jacqueline
  Rose)
• confusing Lacan (I imagine my identity and
  social existence)
• with Gloria Gaynor (I Am What I Am)
• 2. Objectivist neo-Modernism
• Reductionist pseudo-economics There Is No
  Alternative (to competitiveness)
• Empirical focus on indicators of competitiveness
  
• confusing urban economics with elementary
  business studies

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The neo-liberalisation of academia

• From (1800s-1980s) Universities sustain a
  privileged social elite dedicated to exploring
  ideas
• The Haldane Model of science - let the
  scientists get on with it
• Problem contingently compromised intellectually
  because of social biases in recruitment (white,
  male, upper-class, etc)
• To (1990s-) Universities becoming branded
  sellers of employment credentials and marketable
  research
• Competing for customers by advertising Market
  Leaders - the proliferation of puff and badges
  Centres, Units, Academies, websites, repetitive
  books, journals etc..
• Problem inherently compromised intellectually
  because geared to markets (we just want your
  money)

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Academia Vs Humanity... Its not new....
No wonder .. That the ablest of our graduates so
often become the most cynical..... Our
educational policy... has been in the main,
wrongly and falsely handled (Patrick Geddes
1924)
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So, which is really the tragedy, which the farce?
The purpose of Planning is to create the
Sustainable City (and I know how to do it) The
patrician arrogance of Naive Modernism ... this
one made some mistakes
The purpose of Planning is to make cities into
nodes of global connexity (and I know how to do
it) The myopic arrogance of branded neo-liberal
Post-Modernism ... this one may kill us all