Knowledge and Learning in Complex Urban Renewal Projects; Towards a Process Design

Learning in urban renewal - PhD project Janneke van Bemmel OTB Delft

Conference paper
2006 ERSA Congress
Track N: Urban policy, planning and governance

KNOWLEDGE AND LEARNING IN COMPLEX URBAN RENEWAL PROJECTS;

TOWARDS A PROCESS DESIGN

(draft version, April 2006)

Janneke van Bemmel
Research Institute OTB
Delft University of Technology
The Netherlands

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Urban renewal processes are complex and uncertain; complex because several parties are
involved bringing in a wide range of diverging interests, and uncertain because planning
is about changing the future, and the future is largely unknown. Therefore, planning
involves understanding and managing uncertainty (Abbott, 2005). In addition to
uncertain, urban renewal processes are knowledge intensive; the work that needs to be
done in planning processes requires a large amount of knowledge, it is knowledge work.
With learning, uncertainty becomes more manageable and the quality of the knowledge
work can increase. Learning can be defined as the creation of knowledge that is
applicable in the activities of the parties involved (Argyris and Schon, 1996). In the early
stages of urban renewal processes, learning entails the creation and application of
knowledge during decision-making. This paper is part of a research project that
investigates how learning in the early stages of urban renewal processes can be enhanced
in order to improve the quality of decisions. In this paper a first version of a process
design for enhancing learning in urban renewal processes is developed, based on several
theoretical themes. An important aspect of the process design is a model of learning as a
cyclical process consisting of the following phases; formulation of vision, goals, strategy
(1), determination of the knowledge needs (2), knowledge development (3), knowledge
sharing (4), knowledge application (5), and knowledge evaluation (6). (Huber, 1991;
Weggeman, 2000) Other elements of the process design developed in this paper are
insights from policy learning theory and factors that are known to increase knowledge
application.

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