POLICY MOBILITIES AND WEST DALLAS DREAM: CONSIDERING TRANSACTIVE AND COMMUNICATIVE POLICY IDEAS TESTED IN VANCOUVER AND ASSEMBLED IN DALLAS
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Beggs, Wayne Mitchell
0000-0001-7558-6892
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This dissertation considers contemporary urban development and urban change as framed by emerging forces of neoliberalism and globalization and applies critical theory lenses to discuss how policy approaches developed in Vancouver, BC are mobilized in Dallas, Texas. Policy mobilties describes the movement of policy ideas between cities, in frames of neoliberal governance and globalization (McCann, 2011-1). Policy agents promote the sharing of policy ideas through conferences, trade publications and the internet (Khirfan et al, 2013; McCann, 2011-1; Peck and Theodore, 2015). Receiving cities approach policy agents with expertise in markets known for planning innovation and bring these agents to new settings where they work with local professionals to advance hybridized adaptations of innovations in new settings (Khirfan et al, 2013; McCann, 2011-1; Peck and Theodore, 2015). Policy mobilities is not just about the receiving location. As McCann notes “policy mobilities encourages us to understand policy movement not simply as a geographic space, but also as a theoretical and temporal space” (2011-1).
West Dallas Dream (WDD) (City of Dallas, 2009), advanced by the Dallas Citydesign Studio (DCdS) is an example of policy mobilities and will be the focus of this dissertation. DCdS worked closely with Larry Beasley, Vancouver’s former Co-director of Planning, who, through his work there, had developed deep experience delivering transactive and communicative planning processes. A comparison of the history of Dallas planning and the approach taken in WDD indicates that the more egalitarian and inclusive path WDD carves is a significant departure from how planning has been done over most of the history of the City of Dallas.
Using a methodology approaching global ethnography, I investigate the flow of transactive and communicative policy approaches between Vancouver and Dallas. I organize the investigation using Ostrom and Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, which provides a scaffold for the theoretical back-story and context of this investigation. This theoretical back-story includes consideration of meta-themes, like neoliberalism and globalization. These meta themes provide the context for consideration of policy mobilities. Contextual positioning of a discussion of WDD also requires a description of the meta-theme, critical theory along with descriptions of key geographic theories, including policy mobilities, spatial justice and assemblage. It also includes a review of urban economic theories such as Harvey’s concept of the spatial fix, growth machine theory and gentrification. As the dissertation is focused on urban planning policy mobilities, the literature review provides an urban planning context by considering transactive and communicative planning and intercultural planning. This dissertation is executed through a case study methodology, however, place and case are more complex than just considering Vancouver as a supply site and Dallas as a demand community. The case is what happens in both of these communities, but the case is also about what happens between and the shaping of strategy and communications in the flow of policy mobilities (McCann, 2011-1). Finally, the case further explores the concept of assembled meanings from elsewhere, as new approaches land, to be performed in new contexts.
While the global ethnography precedes in a standard fashion, with in-person, open-ended interviews, I provided one methodological innovation – I employed a modified form of mini-charrette - Time-lapse Charrette Futuring (TLCF) with subjects in order to create a visual representation of their responses. To support consideration of charrettes and general urban design literacy, the dissertation also briefly reviewed charrette-focused literature and related concepts of co-design.
At the broadest level, this dissertation is about participatory democracy and the role urban planning plays in creating a world where all community members are able to participate in democratic deliberations. Seen through another lens, this dissertation is about managing planning in the neo-liberal era to allow for current social and economic regimes in the City of Dallas to continue, while only making slight adjustments. I am interested in examining the links to Socratic and Habbermasian traditions of discussion and debate in planning as a means of moving towards a more informed and active citizenry, who through their interest, participate actively in community life.
While a certain tradition of this communicative and transactive form of planning flourished in Vancouver – at least for a time, its travel, through policy mobilities to Dallas meets with a radically different cultural and political context. Therefore, this dissertation must think relationally about the source and target communities and must deeply consider context and its formative role in the receipt, consideration and performance of mobilized policies.
Specifically, within these broader themes of participatory democracy and transactive and communicative planning, this dissertation asks:
1. How do policy mobilities work, with particular attention paid to what flows, what gets blocked and what mutates into hybrid forms of practice and development? This component builds case knowledge for policy mobilities. The dissertation found that policy mobilities occurred through Larry Beasley’s leadership of the West Dallas Dream visioning process. These findings were derived from interviews with key informants who had participated in WDD. Additionally, a review of the case of West Dallas Dream revealed the extent to which private philanthropy drove the potential to seek innovative solutions. This aspect of the findings opens questions as to the potential of private citizens to shape policy outcomes in a neo-liberal context where governments have shrunk from progressive incursions in policy arenas.
2. Is there a need to correct the course of processes and development triggered by WDD? The dissertation found community concerns for course correction to be complex. While some citizens were happy about the new developments in West Dallas, others were wary of the potential for continued change. They believed that changes in West Dallas brought new recreational opportunities to the community. Citizens and citizens’ serving organizations were critical of the connection between new development in West Dallas and the community-focused policy commitments of WDD as a policy process. The research revealed findings in seven key areas, including:
a. Process – related to the flow of a transactive and communicative planning process between Vancouver and Dallas – derived through consideration of the process pursued for WDD;
b. Social and spatial justice – telling the story of broader considerations of social and spatial justice implications related to social and spatial justice;
c. Issues of gentrification and protection as they relate to WDD;
d. Consideration of the development control framework; and,
e. Design and its implication within WDD.
3. In situations with racial enclaves, do transactive and communicative planning tools assist in creating spaces (spaces of dialogue, or physical spaces) that facilitate a more inclusive conversation about race and power relations? The dissertation found that transactive and communicative planning tools could lead to the creation of spaces for intercultural dialogue, but it also found that opening up these approaches to broader participation created expectations about the city’s commitment to social change going forward. The research found that often in Dallas, the philanthropic sector filled a void left by governance.
4. Can a Time Lapse Charrette Futuring (TLCF) tool which considers visual change and then asks citizens to project forward, be useful and is this approach adaptable to other uses in the review of urban planning interventions? The testing of the TLCF proved challenging. Only a few individuals agreed to participate in the creation of a drawing and so the sample size on which to draw conclusions is small. However, from this small sample, it was clear that design professionals operate at a distinct advantage in a planning process. This stands in contrasts to the assertions made by Larry Beasley, who suggests that design is a unique leveling device in a planning process as visual literacy leads to greater clarity about design and it’s potential. I found that those with design literacy were far more adept at the futuring aspect of this proposed method. A focus away from increased development may also reflect a general comfort with the status quo and a wish to not see significant change in these neighborhoods.
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