TY - JOUR
T1 - Planning in a place of co-becoming
T2 - Informal and more-than-human placemaking in Scottish vacant land policy
AU - Humphris, Imogen
AU - Rauws, Ward
AU - Horlings, Lummina G.
PY - 2024/4/23
Y1 - 2024/4/23
N2 - Vacant land can provide social and ecological benefits to cities as they are informally used by people and spontaneously populated by animals and plant-life. However, planners and policy makers often frame vacant land as ‘empty’, ‘blank’ spaces, making it difficult to acknowledge informal and more-than-human shaping of these places. This paper demonstrates how a reconceptualization of vacant land through a relational lens enables the inclusion of informal and more-than-human placemaking in planning policy. Analysing the recent Scottish planning policy debate on vacant land through the analysis of policy documents and key informant interviews, we demonstrate that the inclusion of informal and more-than-human placemaking in the Scottish planning policy is fostered by growing recognition of concepts such as urban biodiversity, but hindered by persistent nature-culture divisions. Waymarkers for future policy making are, firstly, strengthening the presence of informal and more-than-human actors in policy debates by seeking representatives who can speak on their behalf and, secondly, supporting new placemaking traditions specifically for vacant land that are incremental and collaborative.
AB - Vacant land can provide social and ecological benefits to cities as they are informally used by people and spontaneously populated by animals and plant-life. However, planners and policy makers often frame vacant land as ‘empty’, ‘blank’ spaces, making it difficult to acknowledge informal and more-than-human shaping of these places. This paper demonstrates how a reconceptualization of vacant land through a relational lens enables the inclusion of informal and more-than-human placemaking in planning policy. Analysing the recent Scottish planning policy debate on vacant land through the analysis of policy documents and key informant interviews, we demonstrate that the inclusion of informal and more-than-human placemaking in the Scottish planning policy is fostered by growing recognition of concepts such as urban biodiversity, but hindered by persistent nature-culture divisions. Waymarkers for future policy making are, firstly, strengthening the presence of informal and more-than-human actors in policy debates by seeking representatives who can speak on their behalf and, secondly, supporting new placemaking traditions specifically for vacant land that are incremental and collaborative.
KW - onderbenutte bedrijfsterreinen
KW - meer dan menselijk
KW - ruimte bieden
KW - stedelijke ontwikkeling
KW - braakliggend terrein
KW - brownfields
KW - more-than-human
KW - placemaking
KW - urban planning
KW - vacant land
U2 - 10.1016/j.cities.2024.105036
DO - 10.1016/j.cities.2024.105036
M3 - Article
SN - 0264-2751
VL - 150
JO - Cities
JF - Cities
M1 - 105036
ER -