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

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

Tabel 1. Classifications of uncertainty and ambiguity

LEARNING AS AN ANSWER TO UNCERTAINTY IN URBAN RENEWAL

The high level of complexity of urban renewal processes, caused by the different kinds of uncertainty
and ambiguity, has implications for the way planning processes are organized. Several authors have
done suggestions on this topic. Van der Schaar mentions a need for a vision that is supported by the
parties involved, a need for investment in mutual trust, and a need for process memory: knowledge
that is shared and valued by all the parties involved about the initial ambitions and agreements, the
adjustments in those and the reasons for these adjustments (Van der Schaar, 2005). Korthals Altes
made a similar remark earlier (2002:1441): “central urban regeneration programmes do not work well
in complex urban renewal; there has to be a learning process - a process of interaction.

Planning processes cannot simply be regarded as successful when the goals that were set at
the start of the process are achieved. Faludi (2000) states that: "(...) strategic spatial plans must be
evaluated, not primarily in the light of their material outcomes, but for how they improve the
understanding of decision makers ofpresent and future problems they face. Plans perform their role if
and when they help decision makers make sense of their situations, and so they need to be evaluated
in this light”. Almost three decades before, in a study of manpower and urban renewal programs,
Goldfarb (1975:281) already stated, "... the outcomes of new programs are shrouded in uncertainty.
In such an atmosphere, ex post program evaluation methods which take account of possibilities of
‘learning by doing’ can be extremely valuable.” Following these lines of reasoning, it is assumed here
that successful planning processes are planning processes in which learning takes place.

In addition to uncertain, urban renewal processes are also knowledge intensive. Important
resources for urban renewal processes are land (including raw materials), labour and capital, three
separate production factors as defined by Marx (1839). A fourth production factor has become

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