Temporary Use &amp; Collective Action: How Urban Planning Practices Contribute to Adaptive Capacity Building for Economic Resilience

Robin A Chang

doi:10.24306/plnxt/51

Abstract

Amongst the proliferation of practice- and theory-based concepts that are changing urban planning, the renaissance of resilience is proving its potential for impressive implications instead of remaining a brief trend. This paper considers the affordances of an evolutionary and adaptive resilience framing for planning policy and practice in relation to economic development. Specifically, the research presented here explores the explanatory and analytical values of resilience through transformative collective action that incites experimentation, social learning and adaptive capacity building through entrepreneurial temporary uses. In the spotlight is Bremen’s temporary use policy of ZwischenZeitZentrale, through which temporary use is managed in the wake of economic and structural change. This softer form of policy demonstrates how planning mechanisms can complement strategies to address hurdles following gradual forms of crises. Through the case study of Plantage 9, an illustration of collective action is anchored by entrepreneurial temporary use that enable temporary users, temporary use managers and public administrations to build adaptive capacity for economic resilience.

Highlights

In the context of urban planning, the resilience debate is ongoing and its momentum remains strong
In contrast to clear and immediate policy outcomes, such as funding for Chief Resilience Officers (Rodin, 2014; Silva, 2015) and reference compendiums (European Commission, 2015), the conceptual translation of resilience for communities and the built environment continues to demand granular nuance and socially coherent framing. This contribution responds to this need by examining planning practices in the context of economic development that combine what Ernstson and other colleagues identify as an understanding of evolutionary resilience ‘in’ cities which is reliant on intrinsic city capacities and networks, as opposed to those that are external and ‘of’ cities (2010)
Backgrounded by research from the fields of regional studies and economic geography which have broached the resilience concept since the mid2000s (Swanstrom, 2008; Pike et al, 2010; Simmie & Martin, 2010; Courvisanos et al, 2014, p. 630; Boschma, 2015), this humble exploration examines how temporary uses facilitate adaptive capacity building through collective action and enables communities to, as articulated by Holden et al, ‘correlate possibility’ (2016, p. 298) for economic development and bounce forward toward futures different from historical paths

Summary

Open Access Journal

Temporary Use & Collective Action: How Urban Planning Practices Contribute to Adaptive Capacity Building for Economic Resilience. In the spotlight is Bremen’s temporary use policy of ZwischenZeitZentrale, through which temporary use is managed in the wake of economic and structural change. This softer form of policy demonstrates how planning mechanisms can complement strategies to address hurdles following gradual forms of crises. Through the case study of Plantage 9, an illustration of collective action is anchored by entrepreneurial temporary use that enable temporary users, temporary use managers and public administrations to build adaptive capacity for economic resilience.

Introduction

Introducing Economic Transitions in the Bremen Context

Findings

Closing Reflections