Cities for Citizens: Planning and the Rise of Civil Society in a Global Age

In an era of the globalization of finance, production and distribution networks, cities have become increasingly competitive. The business environments preferred by such international investment impact on the lives of citizens, on urban spaces, services, amenities and infrastructure. In the fight for the future of our cities, civil society has now entered the fray. Whether resisting the intrusion of both state and corporate economy into the life of neighbourhoods and communities or working with both government and the private sector in managing urban affairs, civil society lays claim to inclusion in a more democratic politics of planning. This political shift is refashioning planning. Planning is now recognized as more than simply a state regulatory process; it has become a political activity, central to the struggle towards more liveable cities. Cities for Citizens brings together leading names in planning today. The contributors present an international range of case studies – from the USA, Latin America, Europe and Asia–Pacific – which ground the exploration of ideas in the realities and struggles of everyday life.

Partial table of contents: PLANNING AND THE RISE OF CIVIL SOCIETY. Planning and Civil Society in the Twenty–first Century: An Introduction (P. Marris). The New Political Economy of Planning: The Rise of Civil Society (J. Friedmann). CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE PRACTICE OF PLANNING. Learning Democratic Practice: Distributing Government Resources Through Popular Participation in Porto Alegre, Brazil (R. Abers). Local Environmental Conflicts in Latin America: Changing State–Civil Society Relations in Chile (F. Sabatini). THEORETICAL DEBATES. The Death of Modernist Planning: Radical Praxis for a Postmodern Age (L. Sandercock). Empowering Civil Society: Habermas, Foucault and the Question of Conflict (B. Flyvbjerg). Convivial Cities (L. Peattie). Endnotes. List of Figures. List of Tables. Contributors. Acknowledgments. Bibliography. Index.