Conference Proceedings
CITIES TO BE TAMED?
Section 3 | Interplays of Power,
Planning, and the City

As Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber remind us, “Planning is a component of politics. There is no escaping that truism”. Although this is true everywhere, it is made more evident in many contexts of the ‘urban South’, where ethnic and social conflicts are often exacerbated. In these situations, planning and urban policies often act as a ‘veil of Maya’ hiding by a ‘technical cover’ the underlying political aims pursued by the design of space.

Which are the different articulations of the relationship between spatial transformation, power, social conflicts, popular resistance in different ‘urban South’ contexts? How is it possible to fight back the ‘dark side’ of planning? Is it really feasible to empower citizens by participation in planning, urban policies, architecture?

Chair: Francesco Chiodelli
Discussants: Scott A. Bollens, University of California
and Erez Tzfadia, Sapir College

• Unraveling Spaces of Representation through Insurgent Planning Actions
Ignacio Castillo Ulloa
• Following Rittel to the Urban ‘South-East’. Dirty Hands, and the Contestation of Space and Ethics in Planning
Jeffrey Chan, Faith Wong
• The City of Tshwane, South Africa. Some New Planning Games Aimed at (Re)Shaping and Nurturing Spaces, Places and Faces...
A ‘Blue-Sky Thinking Approach’ in Fighting Back ‘the Dark Side of (Apartheid) Planning’
Johnny Coetzee, Marica Retief
• Planned Informality as a by-product of the Occupation. The Case of Kufr Aqab Neighborhood in Jerusalem North
Muna Dajani, Daniela De Leo, Nura AlKhalili
• Extreme Planning: Can You Tame a City in Conflict?
Hassan Ebrahimi
• Bio-political Machines and Camps of Middle-Class. Architecture of Tehran 1921-1979
Hamed Khosravi
• Sovereignty, Planning and Gray Space. Illegal Construction in Sarajevo, Nicosia and Jerusalem.
Olivier Legrand