Planning in Turbulent Times: Exploring Planners' Agency in Jerusalem

Abstract

Abstract

J erusalem

“…Centuries of sporadic violent conflict have left scars on the ground that a history of the past century of modern planning can only begin to capture. Whilst as far as the relation between planning and politics is concerned, Jerusalem represents an exceptional case study (Rokem & Allegra 2016), it is equally a city that functions relatively well on an everyday basis. One of the lessons from urban planning and policy in Jerusalem is its impact on community segregation, especially in the absence of national policy solutions .…”

Interventions in urban geopolitics

“…In other words, while segregation distinguishes geographically between different groups, without mobility mixing of different groups cannot occur (Rokem & Vaughan, 2017). This enables us to delineate the contours of the city as a meaningful site to analyse mobility and borders between different groups, with more attention given to the 'planning politics nexus'; the relation between planning and politics, as a non-hierarchical set of interactions, negotiated within the specific historical, geographical, legal and cultural context (Rokem & Allegra, 2016).…”

Planning in the Face of Power. Experiencing Power Dimensions in a Visioning Process in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

“…Our reflection on a capacity building and planning project in the Occupied Palestine Territories (West Bank and Gaza) illustrates in a very straightforward way that planning is a highly socio-political activity, strongly related and interlinked with the socio-political environment in which the planning system operates (Rokem & Allegra, 2016). In the 1990s, Coon (1990Coon ( , 1992 and Altrock (1998) provided a comprehensive standard reference on the West Bank planning system, which Coon coins as 'planning under occupation'.…”

“…Planners are not decoupled from the field of power. They are neither neutral nor exclusively technical experts (Rokem & Allegra, 2016), but are actors in this arena practising coalition building, networking, lobbying and political steering (Wagenaar, 2004). The authors also stress the ambiguity, complexity and discrepancy of the institutional decision making process (Hague, 2016;World Bank, 2008).…”