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

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

environment of urban renewal processes changes continuously. It cannot be known what changes and
developments the future holds. Examples are alterations in the national policy, economic
developments, fluctuations in the housing market (external environment), and changing wishes of
residents (planning environment), see Figure 1. Perceptions of knowledge differ because in our
contemporary network society (Castells, 1996), in which values diverge greatly, it is not easy to define
spatial or other qualities of urban renewal. In decision-making processes, different parties have
different ideas about the quality of the desired results.

Figure 1. The planning environment

THE EXTERNAL
ENVIRONMENT

THE PLANNING
ENVIRONMENT

THE
PLANNING
PROCESS

Source: Abbot (2005)

Second, there is strategic uncertainty and ambiguity, referring to the uncertain and changing
position of parties in urban renewal networks and to the risk of parties altering their strategies. In
urban renewal processes, many parties are involved none of which has a dominant position. They
need each other to successfully realize urban renewal projects. However, these parties do not
necessarily have the same interests, resulting in diverging problem definitions and preferred solutions.
To make it even more complex, parties may change their strategies. Distrust between parties is often
considerable, which hampers fruitful cooperation. March and Olsen (1976) call this ambiguity of
intention.

Third, there is institutional uncertainty and ambiguity, resulting from the involvement of
various institutional backgrounds, organisational levels and networks. (e.g. Klijn, 1996). Decisions
regarding urban renewal do not arise in one place, but are made on different levels and in several
policy fields. There are local organisations involved such as housing associations and municipalities,
but also provinces and ministries. The physical policy sector plays an important role in urban renewal,
but there are social partners such as health care institutions involved as well. This means that it can
be rather unclear where and when decisions are taken. This complexity is increased by the ambiguity
of participation (March and Olsen, 1976) that refers to the ever-changing compilation of people within
networks and organisations due to people changing jobs.

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