Pragmatic Spatial Planning: Practial Theory for Professionals

Politics & Social Sciences

Hoch, Charles

Sociology

Routledge

Instead of seeking theory to justify practical professional judgments this book describes how professionals can and should use theory to guide these judgments. Professional spatial planning in the US, and globally, continues to suffer from a weak conceptual grasp of its own practice. Practitioners routinely recognize the value and wisdom of practical judgment finely attuned to context, nuance and complexity; but later offer banal testimony and glib stories of ‘just so’ best-practice discrediting the ambiguity of their own experience. The chapters in this book provide a vocabulary tailored to the conventions of practical judgment, challenging students and practitioners to treat professional expertise as work in progress rather than ‘best’ practice. Instead of seeking theory to justify practical professional judgments, Hoch describes how professionals can and should use theory to guide these judgments. The pragmatist plan helps cope with complexity rather than control it, making it invaluable in the anyone’s pursuit of a planning career. This book will appeal to a wide cross section of students and scholars, especially those working in urban planning, public policy, and government.

Blending detailed historical perspective with contemporary survey research, Charles Hoch and Robert Slayton argue that the answers to one of the most pressing problems of our time come from the poor themselves. Their examination of the Skid Row single room occupancy hotel (SRO) reveals how communities formed by low-income single-person households have for decades offered the security, personal autonomy, and privacy for the "old" homeless that the "new" homeless lack. And they show how public urban renewal efforts, which destroyed the bulk of these hotels with the intent to rid the inner city of the Skid Row homeless, actually laid the foundation for today's urban homeless crisis.Focusing on Chicago from 1870 to the present, but including case studies in other cities, Hoch and Slayton analyze how these SRO hotels operated in the past and claim that the term "flop house" really described a wide range of shelter types available to the poor according to their economic conditions. Based on their research, the authors conclude that policies for solving the homeless problem should focus mainly not on the homeless people, but on the institutional actors who benefit directly and indirectly from their predicament. This means changing public policies that encourage the destruction of affordable housing, especially SRO hotels, and implementing preservation, rehabilitation, and new construction policies instead.Charles Hoch is Associate Professor in the School of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Robert A. Slayton is Assistant Professor of History at Chapman College and author of "Back of the Yards: The Making of a Local Democracy".

New Homeless and Old: Community and the Skid Row Hotel (Conflicts in Urban and Regional Development)

SLAYTON, ROBERT A.

Social Sciences

Temple Univ Pr

Focusing on Chicago from 1870 onwards, but including case studies in other cities, this title analyzes how these Skid Row single room occupancy hotels (SRO) operated in the past and claim that the term flop house really described a range of shelter types available to the poor according to their economic conditions.

New Homeless And Old: Community and the Skid Row Hotel (Conflicts In Urban & Regional)

Temple University Press

What do planners do? To find out, Charles Hoch interviewed 29 practicing planners and observed how they interacted with staff, citizens, and public officials. In What Planners Do, he tells their stories. The most effective planners have more than just technical skills. They also possess political and organizational savvy. You'll learn how planners employ the arts of resistance, innovation, and persuasion while working in the trenches of local government; how they respond to the moral and political conflicts that pervade their profession; and how they balance individual autonomy and social responsibility. Written in an accessible style, this book is must reading for all those intrigued by what planners do.

What Planners Do: Power, Politics, and Persuasion

APA Planners Press

What Planners Do is an innovative study of strategies used by urban planners in city governments of the United States to grapple with the political side of their profession. Hoch focuses on the attitudes of planners toward the compromises they make to accommodate political conflict, budgetary constraints, and bureaucratic red tape. Covered are the ways planners utilize research, formulate plans, regulate development, organize political coalitions, cope with racial discrimination, and negotiate with members of business groups, community organizations, and government agencies. Throughout Hoch identifies the pitfalls of common approaches taken by planners and gives examples of helpful alternatives. Hoch’s analysis features responses from interviews he conducted with 32 professional planners who share insights and observations about their experiences and describe their reactions to problems encountered on the job, from enforcing building codes to selling a town council on a renovation project. Also included is a comprehensive overview of planning theory and the results of past survey research and case studies.

What Planners Do: Power, Politics and Persuasion

UNKNO

The Neutral Territory of Moresnet ...: Printed for Private Distribution (1882)

Literature & Fiction

Classics

Cornell University Library

The Neutral Territory Of Moresnet (1882)

History

Kessinger Publishing, LLC

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