SESSION 6 – COMMUNITIES OF METHOD

Copyright 2011 Phil Heywood

Outline of Session1. Players in Community Planning Process2. The Activities to be planned & coordinated3. The Planning Process & its 4 stages

• Awareness & Reasons• Understanding & Knowledge

4. BUZZ PAIRS: PLANNING SYSTEMS & THEIR INTERACTIONS• Option & Evaluation• Outcome & Actions

5. Conclusions.

Place in the Community Planning Process

After

Scope, Scales, Challenges of Change, Themes & Values

&

before

Spaces, Governance, Indicators, Applications and Future Directions

The Range of Activities Involved

• Work - Economic Planners• Shelter –Housing & Land use Planners• Settlements- Urban & Regional Planners• Play- Recreation Planners• Natural Resources- Environmental Planners• Play- Recreational & Parks Planners• Access- Transport Planners• Learning- Educational Planners• Health - Health System Planners

Players in the Process

1. Communities -the People Involved

2. Politicians - the Decision Takers

3. Planners & Providers -the Change Agents

Relations Between Players

POLITICIAN

PUBLICPROFESSIONAL/

PLANNER

URBAN POLICY COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

Ward Office Contact

Community Advisory Committees

Ad Hoc Meetings

Elections

Media

Committees

Reports

Advisory Committees

Briefings

Informal contact (Corridors)

Preferences

Problems Ideas

InformationEvaluation Analysis

Surveys Liaison CommunityWorking GroupsMedia

CommitteesWorkshopsNewsletters

MeetingsConsultationKits

Need for a Common Vocabulary

1. Community Planning involves many different practitioners, each with their own expertise and vocabulary

2. This can seem like jargon to outsiders (think of UGBs & TODs)! If people don’t understand each other, they can’t cooperate. But they have to, to achieve development & settlements that work for all. Therefore good communications are essential

3. The first step in communication is recognizing what others are talking about.

4. T he second is recognizing why they regard it as important.

5. The next stage is agreeing how it will be achieved

6. All require a common vocabulary & methods based on human hopes & community objectives.

Need for a Common Process

1. Once communication has been established, practitioners in different fields will need a parallel and related work process to achieve integrated and effective action.

2. The 4 phase, 10 stage, process which follows is well suited to planning quite different systems. Reduced to these 4 basic phases, it becomes suitable for practitioners from non-planning backgrounds, or working under the pressure of short deadlines.

3. If people start with these 4 simple phases, they will be drawn in appropriate situations, into each of the component activities of the individual stages.

The Four Phases

1. AWARENESS :

Facts & Values (WHY?)

2. UNDERSTANDING :

Information & analysis (WHAT?)

3. OPTIONS & EVALUATIONS:

Ideas & Argument (WHICH?)

4. OUTCOMES & ACTIONS:

Proposals & Implementation (HOW?)

Simplified Four Stage Community Planning Process

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

AWARENESS

Sensations, responses & ideas

1. Appraisal of Problems & Prospects

2. Aims & Objectives

Collecting & Interpreting

3. Information Collection Analysis & Projection

4. Resource Analysis

OPTIONS & EVALUATION

Synthesis

5. Action Research

6. Policies & Alternative Strategies

7. Evaluation

OUTCOMESProposals8. Costed & Phased Proposals

9. Implementation Schemes

10. Monitoring & Review of new problems

UNDERSTANDING

Awareness & Reasons

The force of ideas in shaping an environment:

- A Seattle artist’s view of where the form of the city centre came from.

Awareness

1. Appraisal (observation of people, spaces & ideas) - Qualities of community, places and problems

2. Objectives (set aims to reflect concerns) - Achievable and verifiable outcomes

Understanding & Knowledge - Analysis Technique Topics

1. Access & Transport - Including, road, rail, water, cycle, foot modes and InfoTech channels; journey to work patterns, trends and problems

2. Community & Culture - including social characteristics & social & human capital

3. Governance & Administration - including representative government, public participation, public corporations, public private partnerships & community organization

4. Economy, Employment & Training - including analysis of existing industrial structure, economic base, and cluster, employment and skills characteristics

Understanding & Knowledge - Analysis Technique Topics

5. Environment & Natural Resources - including land, water, air & habitat, quality and policy, resource management & open space systems

6. Housing Policy and Provision - including household forecasts, land demand and supply, and neighborhood design

7. Human Development & Services - including social characteristics, social services & facilities of health & education

8. Land Uses, Settlement Form & Urban Design - including central places, scale and grain

Each member think of a planning program for one or more significant human activity Land use Transport Work Play Health Education Water

• Discuss its implications for the planning of other physical or social systems

3. Options & Evaluation

Thinking about Values and Feelings & reaching conclusions

(Rodin’s The Thinker)

Outcomes:Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th Century Hang Glider

A Prophetic Option

Imagination: Producing Proposals to Meet Objectives

The London Plan of 2003-4: reversing 500 years of western corridorDevelopment to reclaim old Thames Docklands & London’s East End.

Methods for Developing Options & Evaluations

1. Plan Development - Options• Multiple Criteria Method (Alexander’s Synthesis of Form )• Strategic Choice (AIDA – Analysis of Inter Connected

Decision Areas)

2. Evaluation• Cost Effectiveness• Threshold Analysis• Cost Benefit Analysis• Planning Balance Sheet• Ends - Means Analysis

3. Proposal Development• Review, Response & Recombination

Outcomes & Actions: Implementation & Impacts

1. Implementation & Indicators • Costed Social & Physical Infrastructure Plans• Performance Indicators based on objectives & policies

2. Impact Assessment• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)• Social Impact Assessment (SIA) • Review of Unintended Consequences (Risk Assessments)

3. Monitoring & Re-Appraisal• Outcomes of Performance Indicators

o Policy Performance Indicatorso General Social, Economic & Environmental well being indicators

• Reappraisal of situations, problems and objectives

Implementation Program ExampleSouth East Queensland Water Plan 2009 – Proposed Sources of Supply

1. Communities of method can develop the necessary understanding among practitioners in different activities at different levels and in different sectors if they share a common vocabulary and methods: Planning concerns for living, work, play, moving, environment ,

culture, and association all affect each other very significantly National, regional, urban & local levels are all necessary to each

other Political, professional & community roles are all inter-dependent

2. Values based methods can link people of different backgrounds, interests and responsibilities in conversations about common hopes, fears and goals, and are therefore ideally suited to community dialogue and planning.

3. A coordinated basis in human values and community objectives based on aims, information, options and choices, makes evaluation and agreement about proposals and priorities easier to achieve