Making the light rail in Århus. Analyzing Individual Planners Behavior

Transcription

1 Making the light rail in Århus. Analyzing Individual Planners Behavior Enza Lissandrello Department of Development and Planning Aalborg University Trafikdage 2012

2 Context of this research Innovation in public Transport planning Comparative study Making of Package Policy in Trondheim Making of the light rail in Århus Making of the Skane region Different types of innovation Key role of public transport in societal challenges

3 Questions Which planners strategies and efforts can be identified when innovation in public transportation initiatives is required? How can planners develop a capacity (enacting public transport planning initiatives) towards innovative directions? Which planners skills can we define (across the cases) when planners succeed?

4 Analysis of Planners behavior as Performativity Geography (Thrift, Dewsbury, Gibson-Graham, ets) How narratives pass through events, nodes or knots as considered in the way individual do, discover, remember and speak about as in a process of self-monitoring A mix of primary and secondary ethnographic data Political science (Hajer) Skills of persuading and how diverse audiences are acted upon (during interaction) Discourses and staging Planning (Forester, Hillier) Self portraits of planners Becoming Performance based planning/process Ethnographic material Conversational interviews (planners as actors) Reflexive approaches

5 Performativity Performativity is a technology, a culture and a mode of regulation that employs judgments, comparisons and displays as means of incentive, control, attrition and change (Ball, 2003). Performativity is the articulation of knowledge around notions of efficiency and technical competence, and belief in the apparently objective systems of accountability (Cohen et al., 2002) Reforming of relationships and subjectivities in new ways which require intensive work on the self within new institutional forms (re-professionalisation). Day-to-day practices of public planners

6 Method: reflexive interviewing Attempting to create conditions to understand the drama in which the actor acts, through reflexive, responsible, dialogical interviews Interrogating the realities he/she represents Invoking the teller s story in the history told Making the audience responsible for interpretation Foregrounding differences, not conflict Using multiple voices

7 Reflexivity Reflecting on the self positioning in the network of actors and practices in which his/her planning efforts are situated. This can internalise his/her ability to negotiate his/her rule and authority as well as learning.

8 Århus Aarhus is Region Middle Jutland's capital and a city of more than 300,000 inhabitants living in Århus municipality. It is the centre of a "Greater Aarhus" region which has a population of approx. 1.2 mill people. Aarhus is also Denmark's fastest-growing city and leading growth centre

9 Regional Reform in 2007

10 Midttrafik new public transportation authority in Midtjylland 40,000 employees and students commute to Aarhus on a daily basis.

11 The light rail project

12 In the beginning, the idea of the light rail was seen as unrealistic by the ministry of transportation. For many years, the argument was about the high costs to sustain for realizing the project and the fact that Århus is not a big city, does not need it. There are no passengers enough to motivate the realisation of the light rail (S.S.L., EIA light rail, Århus municipality, May 2011). Until 2001, nobody in Denmark knew about light rails. For me was essential to know about the making of light rails in other countries in Europe, especially in provincial cities. It was a way to motivate to politicians that also in Århus it would have an impact on the image of the city (Interview with O.S., Midtraffik, May 2011)

13 Our local first decision in 2000 was to increase public transportation in the city and surrounding, anyway. This decision occurred between the county and Århus municipality. We decided for a new system of bus lines. We thought that our strategy could be to think light railways and to make bus lines. Later on, these lines could be transformed in light rail lines. (Interview with O.S., Midtraffik, June 2011)

14 The first crucial moment that gives us a sense of opportunity was when we decided to start with the EIA process. Our strategy, at that time, changed. We realize that among planners, at both the county and municipality, there was already a common understanding about the light rail; we already experienced it during the process of making the scheme of the new bus lines (Interview with O.S., Midtraffik, June 2011)

15 The establishment of Midttrafik was a big step for the project and for me. I took the project with me from the county to this new institution especially created as public authority for public transportation. I worked immediately for making a special secretary for the light rail project. The institutionalization of Midtraffik gave the possibility to the project to maintain and reinforce its regional relevance. Midtraffik became its institutional context, the light rail is not just an urban project. The main strategy I adopted since then is to cooperate with the surrounding municipalities in making decisions for the light rail. (Interview with O.S., Midtraffik, July 2011)

16 In Denmark, in 1990s the metro in Copenhagen was the first project of public transportation based on cooperation between state and municipality. The engagement of the state in this project was very intense. It was engaged both in making the construction company and in the company to manage the running of the metro. This was the Danish experience of cooperation, as reference point for us, and for our local politicians, especially. For long, local politicians sustain the willing to follow the Copenhagen metro model. I tried to tell them that it was quite unrealistic to think a state involvement like with the Copenhagen metro model. It never happened for provincial towns around Europe. So I tried to move local politicians away from the idea of the copenhagen metro model saying that if we remained fixed with this model of cooperation we will never get an agreement. Then I tried to give them a lot of inputs for making a new two steps model. I tried to convince them that it was important a state involvement in the construction phase to share risks. For me was essential to move the expectations of local politicians further. (Interview with O.S., Midtraffik, August 2011)

17 Diverse moments of the policy making through individual planners performativity 1) present situation (how is him? How is his position in relation to the policy making?) 2) initial phase of the policymaking (his role, his ideas, how he defined problems, pressures) 3) windows of opportunity (or possibility in which his action develops/turns in a favorable moment)

18 What can we got from an analysis on performativity? An insight on the complexity of planning action, the importance of planners interpretation and their navigation through a plurality of situations creating their own space of possibility shaping their context of action and reconfiguring the meaning of planning itself (awareness on position of planners)

19 Public Transport Planner Efforts (highly contextualized) Keep the dialogue with urban planners and other planning practitioners (formal EIA or more informal in the planning process) Keep the metropolitan/regional configuration in mind and high cooperation/consensus/motivation Navigating through national and local political solutions which result accountable comparing other similar situations in other contexts Exploiting institutional conditions as windows of opportunity to move on new projects on long-terms