The making of planners: Subjectivities of planners related to spatial planning at regional level in the context of wind energy in Germany
Final Report Abstract
So far, little attention has been paid to subjectivities in planning research. This is surprising, because it is helpful for a more comprehensive understanding of planning to also conceptually consider the planning subjects, i.e. those who participate in it. Planning policy increasingly functions as identity politics, in that it attempts to influence planning processes and their results through the subjectivities of those involved – especially in the case of complex, conflictual issues such as renewable energies and especially wind energy. The project focused on regional planning as part of legally defined spatial planning as a legally codified type of multi-tiered planning (Raumordnung), which may include informal, participatory elements to varying degrees. The project was based on an integrative approach to planning subjects and the larger power structures in which they are embedded and which they reproduce. The project drew on post-structuralist – or post-foundational – theories of the construction of identities in conjunction with Foucault's governmentality perspective. This assumes that the subject is not the origin of social relations, but is in some way a product of discursively generated roles and practices. Therefore, subjectivities were analysed as the result of the interplay between power-knowledge complexes – or discourses – that subjugate individuals and transform them into subjects, and practices through which individuals themselves shape their identity. The main objective was to analyse the subjectivities of planners in Germany at the interface of regional spatial planning and wind energy development. From a post-fundamental perspective, these subjectivities were to be analysed taking into account the interplay of discursive interpellations (subjectification) and the appropriation of role patterns through performative identity work (subjectivation). In addition, the topics of "ideology and recognition" and "how planners can deal with populists" were examined from different perspectives of democracy and planning theory. Methodologically, the project was based on textual analyses and narrative interviews with regional planners in combination with coding techniques. It could be shown that regional planners in Germany are confronted with a variety of role expectations, which are, for example, directed towards the consideration of complex legal requirements and comprehensive public participation. While on the one hand planners try to meet these demands through a variety of technologies of the self, on the other hand it has become clear that they often do not make these discursive interpellations their own or deal with them in creative, unexpected ways. Many arguments and forms of protest against wind energy planning show populist traits; therefore, the research project identified various possibilities of how planners can deal with populists, whereby the possibilities of reaction – depending on the chosen perspective on democracy and planning theory – can turn out very differently.
Publications
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Berufliche Identitäten von Regionalplanern im Kontext der Windenergienutzung: eine poststrukturalistische Perspektive. Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning, 77(2), 165-180.
Leibenath, Markus
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Wie mit Populisten umgehen? Demokratie- und planungstheoretische Perspektiven für Planungspraxis und Planungsforschung. Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning, 79(3), 228-242.
Thiele, Pia & Leibenath, Markus
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‚Der beste Job, den man haben kann‘: Berufliche Selbstverständnisse von Planer:innen vor dem Hintergrund widersprüchlicher Anforderungen [= Graphic Recording der gleichnamigen Online-Veranstaltung vom 23.06.2022]
Günther, K., Schröder, S., Leibenath, M., Hülz, M., Altrock, U., Levin-Keitel, M., Othengrafen, F., Mölders, T. et al.
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„Der beste Job, den man haben kann": Online-Workshop zu beruflichen Selbstverständnissen von Planerinnen/Planern am 23. Juni 2022, organisiert von der Universität Kassel in Kooperation mit der ARL. Nachrichten der ARL, 2022, 1, 61-63.
Hülz, M., Leibenath, M., Mölders, T. & Schröder, S.
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Insisting on not being addressed in that way: Ideology, subjection and agency in the context of spatial planning. Planning Theory 24, 1, 43-63
Schröder, Sabrina; & Leibenath, Markus
