Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), Khulna-9203, Bangladesh
URP 1113: Fundamentals of Planning Process
Radical Planning
Tanmoy Mazumder
Lecturer, Department of URP, KUET
Radical Planning
Radical planning is a stream of urban planning which seeks to manage development in an
equitable and community based manner.
It is often associated with social justice movements and seeks to address issues of inequality
and exclusion in urban areas.
Stephen Grabow and Alan Heskin’s “Foundations for Radical Concept in Planning” give the
concept of radical planning.
In 1987 John Friedman in “Planning in the Public Domain: From Knowledge to Action”,
promoted a radical planning model based on “decentralization”, “decolonization”,
“democratization”, “self-empowerment” and “reaching out”.
Characteristics
Involve local communities, with minimum intervention from the state and maximum
participation of people in defining, controlling and experimenting with their own
environment.
Radical thought takes a more critical and holistic look at large-scale social processes:
- the effect of class structures and economic relationships;
- the control exercised by culture and media;
- the historical dynamics of social movements, confrontation, alliances and struggles.
Permeate equity in the character of social and economic life at all levels.
Determines the structure and evolution of social problems.
Emphasizes ecological ethics (the moral and ethical dimensions of human interactions with
the natural world)
New Liberalism through governance that promotes political inclusion.
Examples
The progressive planning movement, which seeks to make incremental changes that
eventually lead to structural changes which support quality, participation, and legitimacy,
was inspired by radical planning.
Progressive planners promoted public ownership of land and job generating industries,
worker-managed enterprises, tax reform, community organizations that would agree to
serve public purposes.
An example of radical planning is the community land trust model, which involves the
community ownership of land and the development of affordable housing and other
community resources. This model has been used in a number of cities in the United States,
including Boston, where the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative developed a community
land trust that has helped to revitalize a historically marginalized neighborhood.
Thanks!!!
