Based on insights from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Systems Theory, we conceptualise conflicts as self-referential modes of ordering that shape places. Conflicts can disappear or get resolved, yet they have… Read more New Lecture: Self-referential conflicts and the production of space →
In this paper we analyse the successful local/regional opposition to a proposed new town north of the Dutch city Leiden in terms of pathways, sites and techniques of object formation. In the struggle over spatial plans and policies, new objects are constructed and played out. In some cases, the new objects became institutionalized and codified future development in the region. We focus on the strategic role of the construction of heritage and nature in the planning process, concepts utilized by opponents of the urban plans. Revisiting Foucault’s concepts of power/knowledge… Read more The Power of Tulips: Constructing Nature and Heritage in a Contested Landscape →
Kristof Van Assche, Martijn Duineveld, Raoul Beunen & Petruta Teampau In this paper, we adopt a Foucauldian perspective on power/knowledge interactions to investigate the evolution and implementation of policy for the Romanian Danube delta. We argue that a better understanding of the potential for citizen participation in environmental governance can be obtained from a careful analysis of the pathways of emergence, enactment and implementation of policies affecting an area. Policies are seen as temporary conceptual structures coordinating knowledge and power, in constant transmutation because of the confrontation with other power/knowledge configurations. For the Danube… Read more Delineating Locals: Transformations of Knowledge/Power and the Governance of the Danube Delta →
The Politics of Planning and Design 