Transcending Dilemmas in Urban Policy-Making: Envisioning versus Adapting, Growing versus Stabilizing

ABSTRACT

The problems faced by stakeholders in contemporary urban policy-making processes are becoming increasingly intricate and are emerging at an increasingly faster pace. Many of these problems are emerging as dilemmas between option A or option B. This article proposes that dilemmas can be addressed at three different levels of complexity. At the lowest level, stakeholders accept dilemmas without questioning their formulation, and assume that an either-or choice is required. They accept both the costs and the benefits of either option A or B while dismissing the benefits and costs of the discarded alternative. At a higher level of complexity, stakeholders manage to transcend the dilemma: they reconfigure the problem formulation and create a hitherto unforeseen solution that compounds the benefits of options A and B while rejecting the costs of both options. At the highest level of complexity, stakeholders purposefully look for several dilemmas to transcend in tandem while creating synergies throughout the process. In order to illustrate this argument, the article explores the case of Porto and considers two dilemmas in particular. The first is the envisioning versus adapting dilemma: should cities embrace a powerful vision for their future or adapt to emerging opportunities? The second is the growing versus stabilizing dilemma: should cities continuously pursue economic growth or aim to maintain an agreed-upon level of economic activity? The article offers empirical insights on both dilemmas as experienced in Porto and concludes with a reflection about the strategic relevance of addressing dilemmas at the highest level of complexity possible.

KEYWORDS:

• Dilemmas
• envisioning
• adaptation
• post-growth economics
• Portugal

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This rather anti-democratic culture to be found in Portuguese local authorities is in our view a problem that should be addressed: indeed, the probability of planners losing perspective increases if they are prohibited by the political leadership to discuss and share professional concerns outside their working environment.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by: Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016431 – funded by European Structural and Investment Funds (FEEI) through – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização – COMPETE2020 and by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.

Notes on contributors

António Ferreira

António Ferreira is a Senior Researcher at CITTA – Centre for Research on Territory, Transports and Environment of the University of Porto, Portugal. In the past he has worked as a private consultant and coach in various European countries (self-employed), as a Research Fellow at the University of Leeds (UK), as a Post-doctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and – before his PhD in Civic Design at the University of Liverpool (UK) – as a Full-Time Higher Education Teacher at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). His research interests are at the moment focused on planning theory and spatial planning for change. In the past he has conducted research on transport and accessibility studies, emotions in planning, and planning education. He is engaged as a senior researcher in the FCT-funded project SPLACH– Spatial Planning for Change. The present article is one of the outputs of this project.

Joana Ribeiro-Santos

Joana Ribeiro-Santos is a Researcher at CITTA – Centre for Research on Territory, Transports and Environment of the University of Porto, Portugal. She is a Master in Sociology by the University of Porto and is engaged as a researcher in the Work-package Enhancing the transformative potential of public policies of the FCT-funded project SPLACH – Spatial Planning for Change. Her research interests are focused on urban sociology and urban regeneration policies.

Isabel Breda-Vázquez

Isabel Breda-Vázquez is Associate Professor at CITTA – Centre for Research on Territory, Transports and Environment of the University of Porto, Portugal where she teaches at the master and doctoral levels. She is the Leader of the Research Group on Urban Planning and Housing and the Coordinator of the Doctoral Program on Urban Planning promoted by CITTA. Her research and civic engagement interests are focused on urban policies and new forms of governance, as well as on the development of plans and plan evaluation methodologies in collaboration with public stakeholders. She is engaged as a Work-package Leader in the FCT-funded project SPLACH – Spatial Planning for Change.