The making of planners

Subjectivizations of Planners in the Context of Regional Planning and Wind Energy in Germany

2018-2022 (DFG grant, project number 401342127).

Spatial planning is obliged to provide substantial space for wind energy use. This poses novel challenges for planners: In contrast to other topics, the designation of single-energy areas (priority and suitability areas) has to comply with detailed legal requirements; the prescribed planning methodology with the overlay of 'hard' and 'soft' taboo criteria requires the use of extensive digital spatial information systems; and finally, planning experiences extreme politicization in many places, which is expressed in thousands of statements, protests by angry citizens, and populist hostility.

The aim of the project was to investigate the consequences of this for the professional identities of regional planners. Identities (or subjectivizations) were understood as the result of the interaction of societal invocations and role expectations on the one hand and own demands as well as own identity work on the other hand.

Methodologically, the project was based on text analyses and narrative interviews with regional planners in combination with coding techniques. The selection of text documents and interview partners followed the logic of maximum variance in order to cover the broadest possible spectrum of subject positions and modes of subjectification. The text analyses were directed at the German-language planning literature as well as at guides, manuals and websites on public participation issues.

"The best job you can have".

Workshop I Thu, June 23, 2022, 1-4 p.m.

Professional self-conceptions of planners against the background of contradictory requirements

The aim of the workshop was to discuss the professional self-conceptions of urban and regional planners against the background of contradictory demands and expectations of their professional activities. In this way, both individual approaches and power and dominance relations in spatial planning could be brought into view.

The workshop was organized by the team of the Department of Landscape Planning and Communication (University of Kassel) in cooperation with the ARL - Academy for Spatial Development in the Leibniz Association and financially supported by the DFG.

Background

People working in public administration in the field of spatial planning are confronted with growing and sometimes contradictory demands. These include more extensive participation demands, more complex communication processes, and more intense conflicts in a political environment that is sometimes influenced by populist tendencies. Current challenges are evident, for example, in the confrontation with issues such as the housing shortage in metropolitan areas, climate change, and the energy and mobility transformation. These external challenges both enable and limit the scope of action for planners. The demands on the quality of one's own work are often in conflict with the external conditions of planning.

In debates on planning theory and in international planning research, professional roles and self-perceptions of planners have long been a topic of much attention. Different theoretical perspectives are used to explore and analyze these issues, often from post-structuralism and pragmatism or from gender and planning culture research. In Germany, too, several research projects on planning identity constructions and role understandings have been initiated and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in recent years.

 

Project framework

The event marked the conclusion of the DFG-funded project "Wie Planer:innen gemacht werden: Subjectivizations of Planner:s in the Context of Regional Planning and Wind Energy in Germany", which has been led by Prof. Dr. Markus Leibenath in 2018-2022. This project and its results were brought into dialogue with two other DFG-funded projects: "Spatial transformation processes of the energy turnaround - planning-related analysis and design potentials of gender research", 2021-2023, led by Dr. Martina Hülz and apl. Prof. Dr. Tanja Mölders, as well as "Planners, their everyday life and decisions. The empirical analysis of the everyday actions of urban planners", 2016-2020 led by Prof. Dr. Frank Othengrafen. In addition, possible conclusions for planning practice were discussed and perspectives for further scientific research were pointed out.

 

Target group

The target group of the workshop included scientists from urban, regional and landscape planning, planning practitioners and students from planning science courses.

 

Graphic Recording

During the event a graphic recording was created, i.e. a hand-drawn visualization of the contents and results.[Download in higher resolution, approx. 2.0 MB] [PDF]

 

Click here to download the program, the lecture abstracts and the lecture presentations:

"Gender_Power_Space" by Prof. Dr. Tanja Mölders.

"Thoughts from the planning practice" by Karl Schmude.

"We are projection surface for all desires" by Sabrina Schröder

"Between Technologies of Power and Technologies of the Self" by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Leibenath

"Planners:inside and their self-conceptions" by Prof. Dr. Frank Othengrafen and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Meike Levin-Keitel

 

Further information

  • Schröder, S. & Leibenath, M. (2024 [online first]), Insisting on not being addressed in that way: Ideology, subjection and agency in the context of spatial planning. Planning Theory; https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14730952241228745.
  • Thiele, P. & Leibenath, M. (2021), How to deal with populists? Democracy and planning theory perspectives for planning practice and planning research.Spatial Research and Planning | Spatial Research and Planning, 79, 3, 228-242; https://dx.doi.org/10.14512/rur.77.
  • Leibenath, M. (2019), Professional identities of regional planners in the context of wind energy use: a poststructuralist perspective.Spatial Research and Planning | Spatial Research and Planning, 77, 2, 165-180. dx. doi.org/10.2478/rara-2019-0008.
  • Lintz, G. & Leibenath, M. (2020), The politics of energy landscapes: the influence of local anti-wind initiatives on state policies in Saxony, Germany.Energy, Sustainability and Society, 10, 1, 5. dx. doi.org/10.1186/s13705-019-0230-3
  • Leibenath, M. & Lintz, G. (2018), Understanding 'landscape governance': the case of wind energy landscapes in Germany.Landscape Research, 43, 4, 476-488. dx.doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2017.1306624.
  • Wirth, P. & Leibenath, M. (2017), The role of regional planning in dealing with wind energy conflicts in Germany and perspectives for spatial research.Spatial Research and Planning |SpatialResearch and Planning., 75, 4, 389-398. dx. doi.org/10.1007/s13147-016-0436-1
  • Leibenath, M., Wirth, P. & Lintz, G. (2016), Just a talking store? - Informal participatory spatial planning for implementing state wind energy targets in Germany.Utilities Policy, 41, 206-213. dx. doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2016.02.008