Talia Margalit

Knowledge in urban planning is typically categorized as either ‘professional’ or ‘local’, based primarily on the identity of the knower. We argue that this binary framework has become outdated due to shifts in planning and its broader societal context, and now hinders our ability to understand the role of knowledge and power–knowledge dynamics in planning processes. In its place, we propose an updated and expanded typology of planning knowledges, and a method for identifying them through discourse analysis. We also show how knowledge types, which are now wielded by diverse actors in varied discourse arenas, can no longer be associated exclusively with specific knowers, and often merge into novel hybrids – and consider how these changes impact power–knowledge dynamics. We aim to contribute to the development of a more nuanced and precise epistemology in planning, and hope our proposed framework enriches the understanding of researchers and practitioners alike.

This paper analyzes “Umbrella Agreements,” a policy tool implemented by the Israeli government across 32 municipalities over the past decade. Introduced in response to a deepening housing crisis, these agreements offered funding for local infrastructure in exchange for municipal consent to large-scale residential development on (mostly) state- managed land. We argue that umbrella agreements rescale the neoliberal mechanism of “planning deals” from the urban to the state (national) scale, expanding their logic to new contexts, and fundamentally transforming the Israeli planning regime. While prevailing theories of neoliberalism emphasize decentralization and privatization through “free market” mechanisms, the Israeli process is characterized by strong state control over land and a concentration of planning powers at the national level as a pre-condition for private housing development. Our analysis yields three main findings. First, upscaling planning deals erodes the state’s regulatory powers while increasing its interest as a direct beneficiary of the capitalist order. Second, these agreements subject market logic to greater political control. Third, this transformation has seriously undermined the democratic and professional characters of the planning system, leading to regressive social consequences.

The article examines the Muslim community’s struggle to maintain their cemeteries in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and highlights a broader geo-temporal interpretation of the indigenous right-to-the-city. We analyse a succession of mobilizations against sales and demolitions of Muslim cemeteries across the city since the 1950s and investigate how activists recently gained tangible achievements by framing their protest as an urban citizenship mobilization. We show that by utilizing creative spatial performances, applying to municipal governance and stressing their right to use and produce urban space, to participate, and to have their local heritage acknowledged and commemorated, they invoked and reinterpreted right-to-the-city ideas. Their struggle also expanded this agenda, as they did not focus on their living area, but rather advanced claims related to the full city space and its history, and to the customary view of their spaces as 'terra nullius'. In analysing their struggle, we thus contribute to the right-to-the-city literature and agenda, highlight the right for commemoration as part of right to live in the city as equal citizens, and address the promise this case presents for minority ethnic politics.

In many countries, homeownership has become increasingly less affordable, and a growing and age-diverse sector is now renting housing in the free market (Kemp, 2015; Powell, 2015) for extended peri...

This paper analyzes the news coverage of a nationwide Israeli plan, TAMA38. Previous studies have shown that the media support market and state power. I ask whether they can democratize planning communications and improve the representation of ordinary people. Using critical discourse analysis, I compare the media coverage to the planning system’s discourses, demonstrating that the media represented more people but were less critical of the plan. I discuss the plan and the coverage as part of actually existing neoliberalism and argue that planners should challenge the media and include the people and matters that it tends to ignore.

Promoting urban sustainability and resilience is a demanding and challenging task. This paper focuses on the obstacles related to planning and regulation that stem from the structure of urban planning apparatuses and the substantial incompatibilities between them and common urban dynamics. Based on case studies from Tel Aviv-Jaffa, whose urban structure and municipal management appear to support the vision of urban sustainability and resilience, this paper presents three types of obstacles and concludes with four major challenges. The first obstacle relates to keeping urban infrastructure updated according to new technologies and knowledge. The second involves acknowledging the unintended consequences of planning actions, particularly those engaged with “green” policies. The third refers to confronting entrenched urban structures and processes. The practical obstacles include awareness of the widening social and spatial gaps that may result from uneven sustainability and resilience adaptation; the importance of keeping “open minds” about the required adaptation of plans and facilities to new knowledge and technologies; awareness of the fact that big plans require prolonged processes, which likely means timely adaptation of programs and means; and the need to facilitate communication between urban and governmental bodies and prepare for frequent coordination and consultation in various combinations.

Inspired by open-source and crowd sourcing technologies, the concept of ‘open-source architecture’ has been increasingly used to describe collaborative architectural design (CoDesign) in recent years. In this article, we aim to show that major related issues remain unresolved. As such, they limit the wider adaptation of open-source methods to the world of architecture. We focus on the following issues: first, architectural theorists have not addressed the meaningful limitations and possibilities of these methods in architecture, including the ramifications of sharing knowledge with end users; second, professional architects already share ideas through existing networks that resemble open-source models; third, projects that have aspired to democratise design processes in the recent past have encountered difficulties in sharing tacit professional knowledge with non-professional users; finally, existing open-source licences exclude professional liability which is the bedrock of relations between the architect, their clients, and regulatory authorities in architecture. To arrive at open-source architecture, we argue that these issues need to be further investigated and resolved. The article concludes with reflections on the exchange of knowledge and ideas between professionals and non-professionals, architects and users, and how this can be simplified by using crowd-sourcing technologies.

This article probes the Israeli ‘Clearance and Construction’ urban regeneration programme, which encourages apartment owners nationwide to turn their old dwellings into new tower-clusters. By comparing distinct planning communications on such projects, we aim to contribute a class-related perspective to the debate on post-politics in planning. Planning literature addresses the neutralizing effects of the neoliberal ethos on urban regeneration, highlighting the techniques through which planners dismiss community needs, use values and local voices. We respond to scholars calling for more nuanced perspectives by analysing a dataset of objection hearings in different cities, tracing how planners present their decisions and advance projects, and how different social groups accept and/or reject planners’ rationale. Our findings point to two main outcomes: first, we show that most participants accept the entrepreneurial rationale but their discourse often mixes acceptance with dissent; second, we show that such mixed discourses vary across locations and reflect socio-spatial distinctions. The more affluent participants objected more and highlighted use values and the public interest, yet their discourse largely echoed planners’ discourses. Conversely, the poorer objectors, who focused on exchange values, disrupted the consensual planning order by highlighting their own hopes and personal struggles. Who, then, were more submissive to neoliberal ethos? These results, we argue, call for a nuanced analysis of current planning relations. We argue that such analysis should specifically look at synchronization between consensual planning and co-optation, dissent and socio-spatial deviation.