Trans-Local Civic Networking: An Alternative Planning Praxis

ABSTRACT

Various theories of planning have offered methods for (professional) planning to promote alternatives that are considered ideologically better and more just. Nonetheless, it is not always clear how these alternatives are able to overcome the constraints of state power, within which planning operates and upon which it relies, causing a drift towards ‘post-planning’ approaches. In contrast, we present a newly-emerging (professional) planning praxis that relies on trans-local civic networks. This means separating the concept of planning from planners, enabling the planners to promote their alternatives and confront the state politically. We describe a 40-year-old alternative planning tradition that promoted the formalization of informal Bedouin settlements in the outer-rings of Be’er Sheva metropolis in Israel, which is a deeply contested planning issue. The tradition started with planning specialists and solitary grass-roots organizations (GROs) who achieved negligible results when they encountered the state’s persistent refusal to formalize. It continued with the growth of a complex trans-local civic network of loosely interacting NGOs, GROs, local councils, funds, social movements, global institutions, and political parties. The network proposed (professional) alternative plans, as part of a broader political project manifested in various arenas, and achieved significant results in challenging state power and policies. We describe the evolution and form of the praxis, its impact on the formalization of Bedouin space, and we analyze some of the aspects that enabled the alternative planners to increase their influence on policy decisions.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative planning
• planning praxis
• trans-local civic networks
• Be’er Sheva metropolis
• Bedouin

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Professionalism is conceived as formal education, rational and coherent practice within codes and confinements of the planning milieu.

2. Examples: “A comprehensive plan for the problems of the Bedouin in the Negev” (Nathanson, Al-Huzail, Aelimi, Asan, &Tsameret, 1999: “Center of Legal and Economic Research in the Middle-East” and “Israeli Institution for Economic and Social Research”); “New model for land settlement with the Negev Bedouin” (Ben-David, 2004: Institution for Land Policy and Uses [Jewish National Fund]); “Recognized” (Hershkowitz, 2017), “Social Hub Technion”); ‏ “A way forward” (Abu-Saad & Lithwick, 2000: “Arno Institution” and “Negev Center for Regional Development”).

3. The planning was aided by an academic institution: the “Center for Urban Studies”, Haifa University.

4. It should be noted that group was different from the Negev Bedouin in origin, history, and lack of land claims.

5. The statement was important, since many Bedouin habitats have low-density and are remote from main infrastructure. The general national planning policy promotes urbanized, dense settlements, to prevent sprawl and reduce expenditures of infrastructure and service delivery. The scattered and sparse character of most Bedouin settlements traditionally justified, in the state’s eyes, their delegitimization (see Dekel et al., 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tomer Dekel

Tomer Dekel is a post-doc student at the Department of Geography and Environmental Development in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His research interests include metropolitan development in Israel and the global-south, with a focus on informal urbanization, civil society, and the Bedouin settlements in Negev.

Avinoam Meir

Avinoam Meir received his PhD from the University of Cincinnati in 1977 and is a Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Geography and Environmental Development at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. As a social and cultural geographer since the 1970s his expertise is primarily in spatiality and sociality of indigenous pastoral societies with a focus on the Israeli Bedouin. In particular, he has studied various issues of Bedouin land tenure, settlement planning and urbanization. His studies (books, book chapters and journal articles) have been published widely in international forums.

Nurit Alfasi

Nurit Alfasi is an associate professor at the Department of Geography and Environmental Development in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and since 2011 the head of the planning graduate program. Her research interests include planning theory, urban dynamics, and complexity theory.