From Toronto to Amman: The Cross-National Transfer of Planning Knowledge

Abstract

Building on the notion that the relations among large-scale structures, institutions, and individuals influence the inter-national transfer of planning knowledge, this article investigates the micro-processes that impact the metamorphosis of the transferred knowledge as it undergoes synthesis and adaptation. It proposes a model that links the transactions among the individual transfer agents, whether personal (person-centered) or professional (subject-matter-related), firstly, to the theoretical and practical levels of planning knowledge and secondly, to the structures and institutions. The model is then applied to the Master Plan of Amman, Jordan where planners from Toronto, Canada have been involved. The analysis reveals that during their interpersonal transactions, the transfer agents are better able to synthesize and adapt the transferred theories and practices than when the transfer process progresses toward the institutional level. The findings also reveal the significance of a structure that is conducive to the transfer agents for the synthesis and adaptation of knowledge.

Keywords:

• Amman
• diffusion
• knowledge transfer
• transactive planning

Acknowledgements

My gratitude and appreciation go to Professor Pierre Filion at the University of Waterloo for his mentorship and guidance, and to Mohamed al-Huneidi for his time and effort, particularly in preparing the diagrams. I thank the GIS Department at the Greater Amman Municipality and the Amman Institute for Urban Development for their permission to use a map and a photograph, as indicated in the text. My thanks also go to all the planners who shared their experiences, and to the reviewers and the editors of Planning Theory and Practice for their constructive feedback. Lastly, I am grateful to Columbia University's Middle East Research Center (CUMERC) in Amman, and to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada for their financial support.

Notes

1. There are no official statistics on the ratios of the diversity of origins in Jordan in general and in Amman in particular. In his discussion of the Jordanian population, Yom (2009, p. 153) states that “Palestinians appear to comprise the majority—the Hashemite regime will not release the official census figures—forming up to an estimated two-thirds of the total population.” As for Iraqi refugees, they are mostly Sunni and “number at least 750,000” (Yom, 2009, p. 160; Hindi, 2008) the majority of whom reside in the capital Amman.

2. In an attempt to boost the economy, some claim that the Jordanian government “granted legal residency to [Iraqi refugees] who deposit at least US$150,000 in Jordanian banks” (Yom, 2009, p. 160). The majority of Iraqi refugees however, “cannot obtain legal work permits, and so survive on low-paying or informal jobs” (p. 160).

3. Jordan is the tenth poorest country in water. The government responded by constructing a 325 km pipeline from a natural aquifer in Disi in the southern tip of the country in order to provide Amman with 100 million m³/year of water for the next 100 years. The project, which just recently commenced, is estimated to cost US$ 600 million (Potter et al., 2010, p. 5300).

4. The timeframe was a substantial challenge in this case. One of the Canadian planners explained how he and the Mayor “had a big debate about the time. [I said] ‘this is going to take at least two years’, and he said ‘I don't even have six months’.” This Canadian planner went on to explain how “the main pressure in this project…was so much activity going on and no plan…If we had done a sort of traditional planning program over two years, by the time the plan would be done everything would have been screwed up.” One of the Jordanian planners elaborated, “the scale of this work was rather substantial, having worked approximately 19,000 hours within five months between 12 or 14 of us. We worked consecutively as late as 11 at night daily, so it was quite the challenge.”

5. Their efforts came to the forefront when the AMP was awarded the 2007 World Leadership Award for Town Planning (World Leadership Forum, 2007).

6. John van Nostrand is Founding Principal of Planning Alliance, one of the three Toronto-based planning firms involved in Amman and a leading figure in the formation of the AMP (GAM, 2008, p. 198).

7. A weekly newsletter for professional planners in the Greater Toronto Area.