Tales of the City. Storytelling as a contemporary tool of urban planning and design

Abstract

Almost thirty years ago, as the social sciences underwent their ‘discursive turn’, Bernardo Secchi (1984) drew, in what he called the ‘urban planning narrative’, the attention of planners to the production of myths, turning an activity often seen as primarily technical into one centred around the production of images and ideas. This conception of planning practice gave rise to a powerful current of research in English-speaking countries. Efforts were made to both combine the urban planning narrative with storytelling and to establish storytelling as a prescriptive or descriptive model for planning practice. Thus, just as storytelling is supposed to have led democratic communication off track through a pronounced concern for a good story, storytelling applied to the field of urban production may have led to an increasing preoccupation with staging and showmanship for projects to the detriment of their real inclusion in political debate. It is this possible transformation of the territorial action that will be the focus of the articles collected in this special issue of Articulo – Journal of Urban Research

Medellín in the headlines: The role of the media in the dissemination of urban models

“…Media press shapes and disseminate stories. Different authors have highlighted the importance of storytelling in urban planning practices (Sandercock, 2003;Throgmorton, 2003;Hulst, 2012;Mager & Matthey, 2015;Bulkens et al, 2015;Olesen, 2017). According to James Throgmorton (2003) planning is a persuasive form of storytelling about the future.…”

Storytelling otherwise: Decolonising storytelling in planning

“…The potential impact of stories can have on decision making processes refers to a selective retelling of political communication (Salmon, 2007). Mager and Matthey (2015) argue that "storytelling applied to the field of urban production may have led to an increasing preoccupation with staging and showmanship in projects to the detriment of their real inclusion in political debate" (p.1). In their special issue on 'Tales of the City.…”

Integrating Critical Autobiography to Foster Anti-Racism Learning in the Urban Studies Classroom: Interpreting the “Race and Place” Stories of Undergraduate Students

“…Scholarship suggests the answer to this question begins with storytelling. Planning scholars have studied storytelling extensively (Eckstein and Throgmorton 2003;Forester 1993Forester , 1999Mager and Matthey 2015;Mandelbaum 1993;Marris 1997;Ritzdorf 1993;Sandercock 2003;Throgmorton 1996). Throgmorton (1996) maintained that storytelling is the natural language of political persuasion, and is therefore integral to local planning practice; Marris (1997) argued that planners ought to "embrace the idea that planning is scientific and political, technical and persuasive, and that the tools planners use act as tropes … in the planning stories that they tell" (p. 5).…”