Reflexive Planning as Design and Work: Lessons from the Port of Amsterdam

Abstract

In recent years, planning theorists have advanced various interpretations of the notion of reflexivity, inspired by American pragmatism, complexity theory, hermeneutics, discursive and collaborative planning. Scholars agree that “reflexivity” has a strong temporal dimension: it not only aims to solve present planning problems, but to imagine and understand alternative trajectories for future action. This article explores the practical utility of reflexivity for planners, through a case study that focuses on a project to promote sustainable development in the Port of Amsterdam. Reflexivity in planning emerges as a new tool for generating critical knowledge and dialogue that can synthesise the perspectives of multiple actors in a common understanding, existing structural constraints and a collective imagination of alternative future possibilities. Such research highlights the potential of this approach to generate a creative reconfiguration of the present, and to build capacity for meaningful and considered change.

Keywords:

• Reflexive modernisation
• reflexive monitoring
• Emirbayer and Mische
• agency
• sustainable development
• planning vocabulary

Notes

 1. Especially if we agree that “the power of the past lives on in the institutional relations of the present” (Healey, 1998, p. 1543).

 2. The authors mainly focus on the level of individuals and organisations (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998, p. 1011). By employing their insights to better understand reflexive planning, we contribute to an extension, including wider societal practices.

 3. The area of the Port of Amsterdam region is approximately 4500 ha, the Port of Amsterdam area is approximately 2600 ha, and there are approximately 2000 companies in the port area. The seaport is number four in Western Europe (www.PortofAmsterdam.nl).

 4. As of 2010, the Amsterdam economy has grown by 2.9% annually (Facts & Figures, 2007).

 5. Speech on the Port of Amsterdam in 2005 by the Mayor of Amsterdam, M.J. Cohen, published in the Amsterdam Harbour 1275–2005, Kunsthistorisch Bureau d'Arts (2005).

 6. Given by the later project leader of the Region Dialogue project.

 7. The University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Free University (VU).

 8. The project ran from November 2006 until the end of 2007.

 9. The following discussion is based on the document Duurzaam kansen creëren in de haven (de “regiodialoog”) Project in het kader van Kennisoever Duurzaam. Proposal to the Province North Holland. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam/VU University/Port of Amsterdam.

10. This is distinguished by Motivaction's Mentality^™ model.

11. Cf. Project proposal, note 6, and three internal notes of the project team, all dated December 14, 2007: Interactief werken aan systeeminnovaties, internal note project team; Planning Region Dialogue 1–3.

12. The project leader was especially involved in these discussions.

13. Startdocument Regiodialoog. Duurzaam kansen creëren in de haven. Report by the project team: B. Breure, J. Grin, M. van de Kerkhof, E. Lissandrello, J. Stam, E. Woudenberg (March, 2007).

14. Based on the results published in De probleemanalyse verdiept. Een verdere uitwerking van het Startdocument. Report no. 2 by the project team: B. Breure, J. Grin, M. van de Kerkhof, E. Lissandrello, J. Stam, E. Woudenberg (May 2007).

15. Energy retrieved from gradients in salt concentrations between seawater and river water.

16. As noted by the Innovaders group in 2007 regarding the potential offered by the link between rubber and asphalt processing; published in the Rapport Regiodialoog nr. 2 (note 14).

17. Aanzet tot toekomstbeelden. Een eerste verkenning van denkrichtingen. Werkdocument tweede Dialoogbijeenkomst, 14 June 2007. Report by the project team: B. Breure, J. Grin, M. van de Kerkhof, E. Lissandrello, J. Stam, Woudenberg, E. (June 2007).

18. Tussen droom en daad. Toekomstbeelden voor een duurzame Amsterdamse haven en strategieën voor realisatie. Rapport Regiodialoog nr. 5. Report by the project team: B. Breure, J. Grin, M. van de Kerkhof, E. Lissandrello, J. Stam, E. Woudenberg (November 2007).

19. A space organised as a horizontal dimension means a better exploitation of functions between companies; for instance, linked by logistics or the reuse of substances. The vertical dimension refers to the possibility of arranging the production on multiple levels. The time dimension implies that the functions are organised according to their concrete use at different times in the same space.

20. Rapport Regiodialoog nr. 5; Note 18.

21. The third workshop was based on a reflection of the project team which has been collected in a working paper, the Rapport n. 3 Region Dialogue project (Rapport Regiodialoog nr. 3) Publicatiion in the framework of the program “learning for sustainable development” Province of North Holland (Programme Leren voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling van de provincie Noord-Holland), June 2007.

22. Duurzaamheid als kans. Resultaten van het project Regiodialoog over de Amsterdamse haven. Rapport Regiodialoog nr. 6. Report by the Project: B. Breure, J. Grin, E. Lissandrello (March 2008).

23. Rapport Regiodialoog nr. 6; note 22.

24. All the reports of the project are collected at http://www.regiodialoog.nl.

25. As mentioned in Grin and Weterings, 2005 and practically elaborated on the basis of the experiences of a range of organisations in Grin and van Staveren, 2007.

26. See Späth and Rohracher (2010) for an example from Austria that underpins the same point and Grin (2010) for a conceptual argument.