Speakers
Description
To critically reflect and theorize on politics, strategy, power, and conflict in spatial planning, more attention towards time and temporality is needed (Hutter, Wiechmann et al. 2024). Various research streams have taken up issues of temporality, for instance, research on path dependence (Sorensen 2023) based on „Historical Institutionalism (HI)“ (Mahoney et al. 2016). Our contribution aims to expand this kind of planning research and, therefore, moves beyond path dependence, especially with regard to strategic spatial planning.
Path dependence can be understood – very generally – as the determination of the present and future by the historical past (in the sense of "history matters"). HI proposes a specific understanding of path dependence and – in contrast to this – of gradual change (see Mahoney et al. 2016 on temporality in causal analysis, Mahoney 2021 for a summary): Path dependence refers to a relatively short "critical juncture" in the context of antecedent conditions and, in comparison to the juncture, a longer duration of stabilizing the path that has been chosen during the critical juncture (Sorensen 2023, p. 934). Gradual change, in contrast, encompasses a series of limited (or incremental) changes without referring to junctures and reactive sequences (or increasing returns). Gradual change may have transformative effects ("Transformative gradual change", Mahoney 2021, p. 260).
We use the distinction between path dependence and gradual change to analyse regional strategy development for the Emscher restoration process. The Emscher is a small river in the Ruhr area in Germany. In a large-scale environmental and infrastructure project, between 1991 and 2021 it was converted from an open sewer into a near-natural watercourse that improved the environment and urban quality of life.
Intermediate empirical results of a chronological event analysis illustrate theoretical arguments. Event analysis includes an extensive document analysis and in-depth interviews with policy makers and planning practitioners. A model of regional strategy formation (Wiechmann 2008) guides data analysis. We discuss the extent to which path dependence explains sub-processes of strategy development for the Emscher restoration process, but the regional strategy process as a whole may better correspond to gradual change.
Theoretical argumentation and empirical illustration lead to the suggestion that critical approaches to the current state of planning theories need to address the complexity of time and temporality beyond the straightforward clock-time view of temporal variation (linear, objective time) and also beyond path dependence. This includes the possibility that paths may be created (Garud et al. 2010), which holds especially for truly processual work on strategic spatial planning. Case studies designed for this purpose enable a systematic investigation of change and thus a deeper understanding of planning itself.
References
Garud, Raghu; Kumaraswamy, Arun; Karnoe, Peter (2010): Path dependence or path creation? In: Journal of Management Studies, 47(4), 760-774.
Hutter, Gérard; Wiechmann, Thorsten; Schinagl, Martin; Schroeder, Benno (2024): Temporality in Planning Thought – a New Turn? Short Report on the Round Table at the AESOP Annual Congress on 10 July 2004 in Paris. In: disp – The planning Review, 60(2), 64-65.
Mahoney, James (2021): The Logic of Social Science. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mahoney, James; Mohamedali, Khairunnisa; Nguyen, Christoph (2016): Causality and Time in Historical Institutionalism. In: Fioretos, Orfeo; Falleti, Tulia G.; Sheingate, Adam (eds.): Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 71-88.
Sorensen, Andre (2023): Taking Critical Junctures Seriously: Theory and Method for Causal Analysis of Rapid Institutional Change. In: Planning Perspectives, 38(5), 929-947.
Wiechmann, Thorsten (2008): Planung und Adaptation. Strategieentwicklung in Regionen, Organisationen und Netzwerken. Dortmund: Rohn.
| Keywords | Gradual change, Process, Regional strategy formation, Time. |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
