Actor Networks of Planning
Actor Networks of Planning

Author: Yvonne Rydin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-02-12

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1317502345

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Planning is centrally focused on places which are significant to people, including both the built and natural environments. In making changes to these places, planning outcomes inevitably benefit some and disadvantage others. It is perhaps surprising that Actor Network Theory (ANT) has only recently been considered as an appropriate lens through which to understand planning practice. This book brings together an international range of contributors to explore such potential of ANT in more detail. While it can be thought of as a subset of complexity theory, given its appreciation for non-linear processes and responses, ANT has its roots in the sociology of scientific and technology studies. ANT now comprises a rich set of concepts that can be applied in research, theoretical and empirical. It is a relational approach that posits a radical symmetry between social and material actors (or actants). It suggests the importance of dynamic processes by which networks of relationships become formed, shift and have effect. And while not inherently normative, ANT has the potential to strengthen other more normative domains of planning theory through its unique analytical lens. However, this requires theoretical and empirical work and the papers in this volume undertake such work. This is the first volume to provide a full consideration of how ANT can contribute to planning studies, and suggests a research agenda for conceptual development and empirical application of the theory.

Actor Networks of Planning
Actor Networks of Planning

Author: Yvonne Rydin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-02-12

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1317502337

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Planning is centrally focused on places which are significant to people, including both the built and natural environments. In making changes to these places, planning outcomes inevitably benefit some and disadvantage others. It is perhaps surprising that Actor Network Theory (ANT) has only recently been considered as an appropriate lens through which to understand planning practice. This book brings together an international range of contributors to explore such potential of ANT in more detail. While it can be thought of as a subset of complexity theory, given its appreciation for non-linear processes and responses, ANT has its roots in the sociology of scientific and technology studies. ANT now comprises a rich set of concepts that can be applied in research, theoretical and empirical. It is a relational approach that posits a radical symmetry between social and material actors (or actants). It suggests the importance of dynamic processes by which networks of relationships become formed, shift and have effect. And while not inherently normative, ANT has the potential to strengthen other more normative domains of planning theory through its unique analytical lens. However, this requires theoretical and empirical work and the papers in this volume undertake such work. This is the first volume to provide a full consideration of how ANT can contribute to planning studies, and suggests a research agenda for conceptual development and empirical application of the theory.

Actor and Strategy Models
Actor and Strategy Models

Author: Leon M. Hermans

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2018-01-16

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1119284767

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A practical how-to guide for more effective planningthrough multi-actor modelling Careful planning is the cornerstone of a successful initiative, and any plan, policy, or business strategy can only be successful if it has the support of different actors. These actors may beactively pursuing their own agendas, so the plan must not only offer an optimal solution to theproblem, but must also fit the needs and abilities of the actors involved. Actor and Strategy Models: Practical Applications and Step-wise Approaches provides a primer on multi-actormodelling, based on the fundamental premise that actor strategies are explained by investigatingwhat actors can do, think, and want to achieve. Covering a variety of models with detailed background and case examples, this book focuses on practical application. Step-by-step instructions for each approach provide immediately actionable insight, while a general framework for actor and strategy modelling allows the reader to tailor any approach as needed to optimize results in terms of situation-specific planning. Oriented toward real-world strategy, this helpful resource: Provides models that shed light on the multi-actor dimensions of planning, using a variety of analytical approaches Includes literature, theoretical underpinnings, and applications for each method covered Clarifies the similarities, differences, and suitable applications between various actor modelling approaches Provides a step-wise framework for actor and strategy modelling Offers guidance for the identification, structuring, and measuring of values and perceptions Examines the challenges involved in analyzing actors and strategies Even before planning begins, an endeavor's success depends upon a clear understanding of the various actors involved in the planning and implementation stages. From game theory and argumentative analysis, through social network analysis, cognitive mapping, and beyond,Actor and Strategy Models provides valuable insight for more effective planning.

Planning for a Material World
Planning for a Material World

Author: Laura Lieto

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-11-06

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1317564464

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Today, urban scholars think of cities and regions as evolving through networks of human associations, technologies, and natural ecologies. This being the case, planners are faced with the task of navigating a profoundly material world. Planning with and for humans alone is unacceptable: in the unfolding of urban processes, non-human things cannot be ignored. This inclusive vision has consequences for how planners envision the connections among norms, technologies and life-worlds as well as how they design and implement their plans. The contributors to this volume utilize a variety of examples – ecologically-sensitive, regional planning in Naples (Italy); congestion pricing in New York City; and public participation in Europe, among others – to explore how planners engage a heterogeneous and restless world. Inspired by assemblage thinking and actor-network theory, each chapter draws on this "new materialism" to acknowledge, in quite pragmatic ways, that spatial politics is a process of becoming that is inseparable from the materiality of urban practices.

Planning Matter
Planning Matter

Author: Robert A. Beauregard

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2015-11-03

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 022629742X

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City and regional planners talk constantly about the things of the world—from highway interchanges and retention ponds to zoning documents and conference rooms—yet most seem to have a poor understanding of the materiality of the world in which they’re immersed. Too often planners treat built forms, weather patterns, plants, animals, or regulatory technologies as passively awaiting commands rather than actively involved in the workings of cities and regions. In the ambitious and provocative Planning Matter, Robert A. Beauregard sets out to offer a new materialist perspective on planning practice that reveals the many ways in which the nonhuman things of the world mediate what planners say and do. Drawing on actor-network theory and science and technology studies, Beauregard lays out a framework that acknowledges the inevitable insufficiency of our representations of reality while also engaging more holistically with the world in all of its diversity—including human and nonhuman actors alike.

Management in Networks
Management in Networks

Author: Hans de Bruijn

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-08-21

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 1134042248

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Getting what you want – even if you are the boss – isn’t always easy. Almost every organization, big or small, works among a network of competing interests. Whether it's governments pushing through policies, companies trying to increase profits, or even families deciding where to move house, rarely can decisions be made in isolation from competing interests both within the organization and outside it. In this accessible and straightforward account, Hans de Bruijn and Ernst ten Heuvelhof cast light on multi-stakeholder decision-making. Shunning simplistic model talk, they reveal the nuts and bolts of decision-making within the numerous dilemmas and tensions at work. Using a diverse range of illustrative examples throughout, their perceptive analysis examines how different interests can either support or block change, and the strategies available in managing a variety of stakeholders This insightful text provides both depth of understanding and a wealth of advice. It is invaluable reading to students working in business and management, public administration and organizational studies, plus practitioners – or actors – operating in a range of contexts.

Actor-Network Theory and Tourism
Actor-Network Theory and Tourism

Author: René van der Duim

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-03-16

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1136336192

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The recent surfacing of actor-network theory (ANT) in tourism studies correlates to a rising interest in understanding tourism as emergent thorough relational practice connecting cultures, natures and technologies in multifarious ways. Despite the widespread application of ANT across the social sciences, no book has dealt with the practical and theoretical implications of using ANT in Tourism research. This is the first book to critically engage with the use of ANT in tourism studies. By doing so, it challenges approaches that have dominated the literature for the last twenty years and casts new light on issues of materiality, ordering and networks in tourism. The book describes the approach, its possibilities and limitations as an ontology and research methodology, and advances its use and research in the field of tourism. The first three chapters of the book introduce ANT and its key conceptual premises, the book itself and the relation between ANT and tourism studies. Using illustrative cases and examples, the subsequent chapters deal with specific subject areas like materiality, risk, mobilities and ordering and show how ANT contributes to tourism studies. This part presents examples and cases which illustrate the use of the approach in a critical way. Inherently, the study of tourism is a multi-disciplinary field of research and that is reflected in the diverse academic backgrounds of the contributing authors to provide a broad post-disciplinary context of ANT in tourism studies. This unique book, focusing on emerging approaches in tourism research, will be of value to students, researchers and academics in tourism as well as the wider Social Sciences.

Approaches to Human Geography
Approaches to Human Geography

Author: Stuart Aitken

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2006-01-06

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1446222772

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Approaches to Human Geography is the essential student primer on theory and practice in human geography. It is a systematic review of the key ideas and debates informing post-war geography, explaining how those ideas work in practice. In three sections, the text provides: · A comprehensive contexualising essay: Introducing Philosophies, People and Practices · Philosophies: written by the principal proponents, easily comprehensible accounts of: Positivistic Geographies; Humanism; Feminist Geographies; Marxism; Structuration Theory; Behavioral Geography; Realism; Post Structuralist Theories; Actor-Network Theory; and Post Colonialism · People: prominent geographers explain events that formed their ways of knowing; the section offers situated accounts of theory and practice by, for example: David Ley; Linda McDowell; and David Harvey · Practices: applied accounts of Quantification, Evidence and Positivism; Geographic Information Systems; Humanism; Geography, Political Activism, and Marxism; the Production of Feminist Geographies; Poststructuralist Theory; Environmental Inquiry in a Postcolonial World; Contested Geographies · Student Exercises and Glossary Avoiding jargon - while attentive to the rigor and complexity of the ideas that underlie geographic knowledge – the text is written for students who have not met philosophical or theoretical approaches before. This is a beginning guide to geographic research and practice. Comprehensive and accessible, it will be the core text for courses on Approaches to Human Geography; Philosophy and Geography; and the History of Geography; and a key resource for students beginning research projects.

Automated Planning and Acting
Automated Planning and Acting

Author: Malik Ghallab

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-08-09

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 1107037271

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This book presents the most recent and advanced techniques for creating autonomous AI systems capable of planning and acting effectively.

Relational Planning
Relational Planning

Author: Monika Kurath

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-09-19

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 3319604627

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This volume introduces the notion of ‘relational planning’ through a collection of theoretical and empirical contributions that explore the making of heterogeneous associations in the planning practice. The analytical concept builds on recent approaches to complexity and materiality in planning theory by drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS) of urban issues. It frames planning as a socio-material practice taking place within the multifaceted relations between artefacts, agency and practices. By way of this triad, spatial planning is not studied as a given, linear or technical process but rather problematized as a hybrid, distributed and situational practice. The inquiries in this collection thus describe how planning practices are negotiated and enacted in and beyond formal arenas and procedures of planning, and so make visible the many sites, actors and means of spatial planning. Addressing planning topics such as ecology, preservation, participation, rebuilding and zoning, this volume takes into account the uncertain world planning is embedded in. The implications of such a perspective are considered in light of how planning is performed and how it contributes to the emergence of specific socio-material forms and interactions. This is an invaluable read for all scholars of STS, Ecology, Architecture and Urban Planning.