Arenas of conflict: Planning and Participation in plural Democracy

• Applicant: Dr. Manfred Kühn
• Subject Area: Urbanism, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 505243147

The aim of the project is to further develop existing planning theories in dealing with conflicts by distinguishing between rational, communicative and agonistic planning types and, on this basis, examining various planning conflicts in practice by using empirical case studies. The project seeks for a closer connection of planning research with political science approaches of democracy and participation research. For the empirical analysis of planning conflicts, the project transfers the term “arena” from political to planning research. Arenas are understood as places of public conflict resolution in planning participation processes, in which actors with conflicting interests meet and argue in advance of decisions. The political science approach of conflict field analysis is used for empirical analysis. A distinction is made between the context, the object, the actors, the resolution, the regulation and the dynamics of conflicts. When carrying out empirical case studies, the focus is on three central questions: First: What is the relationship between rational, communicative and agonistic planning types in conflict cases in practice? Second: Which arenas and levels of participation contribute to the democratic resolution and regulation of conflicts and how? Third: Under what conditions do participation processes transform antagonistic into agonistic conflicts in planning? The six empirical case studies cover planning conflicts in the fields of urban development planning, land-use planning and the approval of projects. The case selection relates to conflicts between the acceleration of housing construction and the preservation of open spaces in the growing metropolises of Berlin and Hamburg, conflicts over the common good in Potsdam and Freiburg, and conflicts in the approval of wind turbines in the context of the energy transition in the small towns of Sinzing and Amöneburg. By switching from deductive and inductive methods of qualitative research, the project aims for a close connection between planning theory and practice.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants