THE NETWORK SOCIETY Edited by A New Context for Planning?
Louis Albrechts
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Abstract
The papers in this book, based on conference proceedings of the 2003 joined conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Association of European Schools of Planning, investigate the challenges that Urban and Regional Planning is faced with today. The contributors deal with the questions of contemporary organization of social, economic, cultural, political, and physical spaces and center their arguments on the notion that social and physical networks are transforming the way in which we see planned cities and regions. The book's five sections focus on models of network society, the impact of physical networks, the challenges faced by planners in a society heavily reliant on new technology, local networks, such as community networks, and a comparison between spatial and policy networks. The Network Society is essential reading for everyone interested in urban studies, city and regional planning and urban design.
Related papers
Cities in a relational world: limits and future perspective for the plan-making through the network paradigm
Vinci I. (2009), “Cities in a relational world: limits and future perspective for planning through the network paradigm”, Proceeding of the Conference City Futures 09, Madrid, 4-6 June.
This paper aims to discuss the formation and reproduction of social and institutional networks via planning practices and to critically explore the limits and opportunities for the future. It will describe how the process of spatial reconfiguration provided by the 'network society' views several interconnected territorial dimensions: major cities acting as global players in the international market place and their relationships with their regional surroundings; the relationships among enterprises and institutions within local production systems; and the strategic cooperation between urban players from the perspective of the city as a 'collective actor'. The final section of the paper will provide some critical considerations on some ways in which the concept of 'network' has been experimented with and put into practice in the planning field.
Urban Networks - Network Urbanism
Urban networks, network cities, networked cities and city networks are widely discussed, but there has hardly been debate on what constitutes an urbanism of networks. It is time to shift network urbanism from the realm of general debate to that of identifying the task-specific tools and techniques required for its implementation. This book does so. Urban Networks – Network Urbanism provides theoretical groundwork, historical perspective, detailed arguments and explanatory case descriptions for network-oriented thinking in developing urban and regional spatial strategies. The key argument is that the development of technical networks and urban development go hand in hand and need to be dealt with as such by urban planners. This book gives special attention to the territorial effects caused by the automobile system and to the geography of ICT. It provides pointers to deal with the huge challenges facing urban planning with regard to changes of scale, technological progress, the "two-track city", and network liberalisation. Urban Networks – Network Urbanism is a collection of key articles by Gabriel Dupuy on the relation between urban infrastructure networks and urban development. His work on ‘network urbanism’ has been a primary source in the French and Spanish speaking world for two decades and this book provides the first overview of his work in English. Dupuy’s work stands out for its concreteness and clarity. This makes his work readily applicable in the context of spatial planning. http://www.technepress.nl/publications.php?id=28
Spatial Planning in the Network Society-Rethinking the Principles of Planning in the Netherlands
European Planning Studies, 2000
The Dutch planning system rejoices a very positive reputation in the international academic planning literature. Yet both the conceptual orientation and the institutional practices of Dutch planning are eroded. New institutional practices have emerged that effectively form a 'shadow structure' to the of cial planning system, eroding both its effectiveness and legitimacy. The article suggests that this instititutional development is to be understood against the background of larger processes of social change to which the system has so far not responded: the coming 'network society'. In light of this analysis it is suggested that Dutch planning could enhance both its effectiveness and legitimacy by reconsidering some of the basic features of the planning system.
Networks Within Cities and Among Cities: A Paradigm for Urban Development and Governance
2006
Networks and networking have become catch-words in regional science, and particular ly in regional and urban geography in the last decade: we speak about network firms, network society, network economy but also network cities, city -networks, reti urbane, r eseaux de villes. Mere catch-words for someone; a true new scientific paradigm according to others. In our view fact we are facing a new paradigm in spatial sciences, subject to some precise conditions: -that its exact meaning is thoroughly defined, -that its theoretical economic rationale is justified, -that the novelty of its empirical content is clearly pointed out, with respect to more traditional spatial facts and processes that can easily be interpreted through existing spatial paradigms. The theoretical building blocks the network concept or paradigm may be constructed upon are: -a new view of the economy as a system or web of links between individuals, firms and institutions, where links depend on experience and evolve through learning processes ; the existing endowment of knowledge and other production factors is put into value through a relational capability addressed towards the exchange and collection of information, building reputation and trust, creating synergies, cutting down uncertainty, boosting learning processes; -the acknowledgement of cooperation as a new organisational and behavioural form, intermediate between hierarchy (internal development and merging of external activities through direct control) and market resort; cooperation networks among firms co llaborating with each other on technological advances and innovation projects were the earlier phenomenon that was well explored in the past. In a spatial perspective, two issues are particularly worth exploring through the network concept: -networking as cooperation among individuals, firms and institutions taking place inside the cities concerning collective action, public/private partnerships on large urban projects and the supply of public goods, and giving rise to new forms of urban governance; -networking as inter-urban cooperation, assuming the cities as economic actors, competing but also cooperating in the global arena where locations of internationally mobile factors (professionals, corporations, institutions) are decided and negotiated. The paper is organised in the following way: -a major section is devoted to the interpretation of the micro-economic efficiency of local networking (local urban networks), in terms of the usual criteria of optimal allocation of resources and collective welfare, viewing the network as an organisational alternative between market failure and state failure; -a transition section deals with the interpretation of cities, a collective actor at best, as individual/unitary economic actors, given the case for collective action among interest groups, the possibility of defining in broad terms a function of collective preference referring to non-mobile local actors, the engagement of public and private actors in processes of strategic planning and definition of shared visions for the future of the city vis-a-vis mobile actors; -another main section interprets competition and cooperation among cities (inter-city-networks) underlining advantages, risks and conditions for maximising overall comprehensive well-being.
The Network City*
Sociological Inquiry, 1973
The network approach to urban studies can be differentiated from other approaches by its emphasis on the primacy of structures of interpersonal linkages, rather than on the classification of social units according to their individual characteristics. Network analysis is also a methodology for the investigation of these structures. Substantive issues related to interpersonal ties in the city, migration, resource allocation, neighborhood, and community are examined in terms of the network structures and processes that order and integrate urban activities. Finally, a view of the city itself as a network of networks is proposed. It is the organization of urban life by networks that makes the scale and diversity of the city a source of strength rather than of chaos, while it is precisely that scale and diversity which makes the existence of a complex and widely ramified network structure possible.
Networks and Spaces – (re)Configuring the City Region of Arnhem Nijmegen
The future of the city region is here! We see the city region of Arnhem Nijmegen grow on a daily basis, block-by-block, street-by-street, patch-by-patch. This paper provides a selection of student visions on future infrastructure development in this particular city region. They include different dimensions varying from mobility, sustainability, water management and city branding. The student visions are built on a lifestyle exercise that relates drivers for behavioural changes with physical enablers, the infrastructure systems. While the presented visions are mainly inward looking, as they emphasize the spatial qualities of the region as a territorial unit, we finally reflect on the future visions with the help of relational geographical thought. In so doing, we position the future of Arnhem Nijmegen in a global context.
Complex City Systems
2011
Information and communications technology (ICT) is being exploited within cities to enable them to better compete in a global knowledge-based service-led economy. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, cities exploited large technical systems (LTSs)Vsuch as the telegraph, telephony, electrical networks, and other technologiesVto enhance their social and economic position. This paper examines how the LTS model applies to ICT deployments, including broadband network, municipal wireless, and related services, and how cities and city planners in the twenty-first century are using or planning to use these technologies. This paper also examines their motivations and expectations, the contribution to date, and the factors affecting outcomes. The findings extend the LTS model by proposing an increased role for organizations with respect to an individual agency. The findings show how organizations form themselves into networks that interact and influence the outcome of the system at the level of the city. The extension to LTS, in the context of city infrastructure, is referred to as the complex city system framework. This proposed framework integrates the role of these stakeholder networks, as well as that of the socioeconomic, technical, and spatial factors within a city, and shows how together they shape the technical system and its socioeconomic contribution.
The End of Architecture?: Networked Communities, Urban Transformation and Post-capitalist Landscapes
Spaces and Flows: An International Journal of Urban and Extra Urban Studies, 2013
Through its commoditization and acquiescence to the demands of the market, architecture has increasingly become marginalized, if not circumvented, from its role as an aid to humanity and society. It is therefore proposed that if we are to consider the future transformation of our cities, then the communities within them must be given priority as stakeholders. The legibility of on-the-ground conditions and the communication of community needs and aspirations through collective intelligence will become ever-pressing concerns as the pressure for space and amenities in our cities increases in favour of late capitalist occupation and mobility rather than as shared resource for all. If, as both Fredric Jameson (1994) and, more recently, Mark Fisher (2009) have suggested, “it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism”, then we need to fundamentally rethink the means through which we may achieve effective, adaptive and contingent political mobilization to positively alter the urban landscape. The potentially transformative power of data, ceded to the masses, may provide the necessary impetus toward a substantial restructuring of the city, but only if its systems are capable of negotiating the attendant issues of governance, antitrust policy and security measures. If we really are living in the end times of Žižek, we need to energetically and openly engage with the provision of a framework to evolve ‘intelligent terrain’ that is participatory and enabling. This paper therefore seeks to respond to the material and immaterial flows that constitute the contemporary urban condition in relation to its governance, communities and the (re)configuration of space.
Related papers
Introduction. Urban Networks and Network Theory: The City as the Connector of Multiple Networks
Urban Studies, 2010
Edges & Nodes / Cities & Nets: The History and Theories of Networks and What They Tell Us about Urbanity in the Digital Age
Stefan L. Brandt, Winfried Fluck and Frank Mehring (eds.), Transcultural Spaces: Challenges of Urbanity, Ecology, and the Environment in the New Millennium, REAL – Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature, 2010
A Short Cultural History of Networking - How networks of transportation and communication over time shaped urban everyday life as well as the arts flourishing in these cities. I will argue that today, in the early days of the digital age, we are experiencing the continuation of technological as well as cultural processes that started in the Renaissance with mechanization and later escalated in the Enlightenment with industrialization. The vanishing point of my historical investigation is therefore the radical change of urban life driven by the implementation of digital networking technologies: the emergence of a hybrid – partly material, partly virtual – everyday life in the city.
«City networks and sustainability»
International Journal of Sustain ability in Higher …, 2001
Sustainable development has clearly taken on a global dimension, even if in recent years it has increasingly been acknowledged that there is a close mutual interaction between local and global processes. Politicians, economists and practitioners have realised that regional differences and particularities have become very important for building a people-based development which is not only goods-based. Thus, some new keywords for endogenous self-sustainable development are: networks, knowledge and local milieux. The integration of sustainable development aspects in spatial planning, territory governance and development has become stronger and stronger, combined with a spread of local knowledge and the preservation of both the cultural and environmental heritage. This paper considers all these factors and tries to explain these types of relationships, starting from the idea of city network as a basis for global competition, and moving on towards discussing the role of universities and scientific parks as institutions for knowledge production and dissemination. Finally, the important role of cultural heritage in a territory is investigated, as tool for building a culture-based growth that should increase social cohesion, local identity and equity. Although largely descriptive, this analysis is of special use to those teaching courses in the fields of architecture, planning and civil engineering, where a broader knowledge of city networks offers a more solid basis upon which awareness of sustainability may be built.
Networks as Tools for Sustainable Urban Development
2004
Due to the increasing number of networks related to sustainable development (SUD) the paper focuses on understanding in which way networks can be considered useful tools for sustainable urban development, taking particularly into consideration the networks potential of spreading innovative policies, strategies and actions. There has been little theoretically development on the subject. In practice networks for sustainable development can be seen as combining different theoretical approaches to networks, including governance, urban competition and innovation. To give a picture of the variety of sustainable networks, we present different examples of networks, operating at different geographical scales, from global to local, with different missions (organizational, political, technical), fields (lobbying, learning, branding) and its size. The potentials and challenges related to sustainable networks will be discussed through a case study of a Danish municipal network on Sustainable Dev...
The advent of network urbanism
2000
When Kevin Kelly gave his permission to publish parts of Out of Control in this issue, he added that he had not been aware that he was writing about city planning. I thought that cities had always been nodes in and overlaps of various networks, including infrastructure, communication, economic, cultural and social networks, · : among others. The recent interest in networks is nourished by developments which have led Manuel Castells to predict the emergence of a network society: 'While the networking form of social organisation has existed in other times and other spaces, the new information paradigm provides the material basis for its pervasive expansion throughout the entire social structure.'1 The 'material basis' refers to the parallel and interconnected development of computer and telecommunication technologies. Both are present in my pre war home. So, would a telephone line and a laptop suffice to turn a seventeenth century canalside residence or a Vinex terra...
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