Planning strategies in an age of active citizenship: a post-structuralist agenda for self-organization in spatial planning

Civic initiatives in spatial development are on the rise. They emerge from civil society spontaneously and are unpredictable, dynamic, and multiplicity. Therefore, they are often at odds with the inclusionary and disciplinary confines of participatory planning and existing planning frameworks. Planning strategies that answer to the dynamics of civic initiatives, meeting the complexity of an age of active citizenship, have so far been seriously underdeveloped. Based on empirical studies of 14 civic initiatives in Denmark, the Netherlands and England, and a theoretical hybrid of complexity theory (self-organization), actor-network theory (translation) assemblage theory (individuation), this book argues towards a spatial planning that does fit the age of active citizenship. A spatial planning that focusses on conditions that open up, on navigation and on creating consistency between a redundancy of spatial initiatives. And most importantly, the thesis argues toward a flat ontology of planning, in which there are no a priori differences between the intentions and performed behavior of planning actors – including citizens, entrepreneurs, governments, and many others.