Reminder CfP

Inside Planning: Exploring the Practices and Cities of Urban Planning.

Organized by: Ignacio Farías, Pim Peters and Indrawan Prabaharyaka
From: 12 to 13 September 2016 in Munich, Germany.
At the: Munich Center for Technology in Society, Technische Universität München.
Keynote speakers:   AbdouMaliq Simone and Hannah Knox.

How does planning imagine, explore and enact the urban? This is the central question of a 2-days workshop organized by the Infrastructures and Participation research group, part of the Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), Technische Universität München. The workshop aims to contribute to the understanding and conceptualization of urban planning within the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), as well as to the ongoing exchange of insights between STS, Planning and Urban Studies.

We are especially interested in whether and how planners engage in situated practices with the complexity and multiplicity of the city and how throughout planning processes they produce different versions of it. Planning has a long history of understanding ‘the city’ as a singular bounded entity that can be objectively represented and effectively shaped. Rather than just critiquing such an understanding, we are interested in exploring how, if at all, singular versions of the city are produced through the planning process. More generally, we are interested in the multiple and fluid ways in which ‘the city’ is enacted in and through planning practices and devices, and what this means for how we might understand planning processes.

As a starting point for this collective endeavour we suggest thinking planning as an ontological inquiry, that is, as a set of situated practices oriented towards figuring out, devising, testing and shaping how and which different types of entities might be brought together in ways that enable them to co-exist in urban space. Yet, we are open to other ways of approaching the issues mentioned above.
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We especially welcome contributions related to the following four topics, but are open for relevant contributions that go beyond them.

1.       Planning devices

We are interested in exploring the multiple ways in which ‘the city’ is enacted through planning processes, paying particular attention to different devices: plans, models, concepts, charters, norms, folders, maps, reports, numbers, power points, meetings, minutes, scenarios, goals, etc. How do these entities enable and shape the imagining, testing, coordination and articulation of different urban ontologies?

 
2.       Planning projects

Almost every planning process seems to be organized as a project. We would like to explore the notion of ‘the project’ in more detail, analytically and practically. How do projects relate to and differ from plans, how are they (dis)organized, how do they exist in everyday practice and do they make a difference to how planning processes work?


3.       Planning decisions

When following planning processes ethnographically, it is often unclear who, when and how makes planning decisions. We are interested in exploring the ‘distributedness’ of planning decisions within and beyond public administrations, the various topologies involved, as well as the material, practical and legal constraints.


4.       Planning controversies

Very often planning projects and decisions spark public controversies, critique and the ‘visibilization’ of other forms of urban expertise and valuations. We are interested in understanding how and when planners and multiple actors engage in the public justification and critique of planning proposals, paying particular attention at how public controversies are anticipated in the planning office.

Interested participants should send their abstracts (max 300 words) in English, and a short bio (max 100 words) with contact details to the workshop organizer. Deadline: 17 April, 2016. Authors will be notified of acceptance no later than 29 May, 2016.

Besides those already working in academia, we especially encourage master students and fresh graduates to participate in the workshop and present relevant thesis work. We have a limited budget to contribute towards potential travel and accommodation costs, for MSc. Students.
If there are any further questions, don’t hesitate to write directly to Indrawan Prabahariaka: [log in to unmask] or Pim Peters [log in to unmask]