Metropolitan Planning

Resum: L’article revisa els ensenyaments que, a parer de l’autor, poden derivar-se del procés d’elaboració i aprovació del Pla Territorial Metropolità de Barcelona, aprovat pel Govern de la Generalitat de Catalunya l’any 2010. El treball es divideix en tres apartat: en el primer, s’ofereix una panoràmica dels reiterats intents fallits de dotar d’un sistema de govern el territori de la regió metropolitana de Barcelona d’ençà de mitjans del segle XX; el segon apartat s’indica com, en aquest context, l’aprovació del PTMB, acordada entre els ens locals de l’àmbit i el Govern de la Generalitat constitueix una notable excepció; finalment, en el tercer apartat es desgranen deu ensenyaments que, pel govern del territori es deriven del procés d’elaboració, tramitació, aprovació i vigència del Pla.

Introduzione ad una raccolta di saggi sulla pianificazione delle aree metropolitane in Italia organizzata per le città metropolitane istituite dalla legge Delrio e dalle regioni autonome. Indica alcuni profili del sistema metropolitano del paese.

Este trabalho representa uma atualização do atlas Campinas metropolitana: diversidades socioespaciais, produzido em 2007, com base nos dados do Censo Demográfico de 2000 e  2010.  Seu objetivo é  evidenciar a diversidade presente na Região Metropolitana de Campinas – RMC, a partir de um trabalho de sistematização e espacialização de dados sociodemográficos, visando o melhor entendimento dos processos sociais e demográficos e, principalmente, dos problemas e/ou carências que afligem as populações regionais. A concepção do atlas teve como referência as características de uma região metropolitana, tais como a fluidez territorial, as complementaridades e as contiguidades socioespaciais. Assim, a despeito da importância das divisões administrativas municipais – obviamente não negligenciadas –, considera-se que o “olhar metropolitano” é fundamental para um diagnóstico que busque a identificação e solução dos problemas referentes ao ordenamento territorial e à elaboração e eficaz aplicação de políticas públicas voltadas à garantiada qualidade de vida da população, em especial a de mais baixa renda.

How should we build the cities of our dreams? How do we create the urban spaces which reflect our values and the ways we want to live? In cities around the world, the future is being created now, and Henry Grabar will chronicle the most exciting and innovative ideas. Follow him on Twitter at @henrygrabar.

Resumen: La aprobación, en abril de 2010, del Plan Territorial Metropolitano de Barcelona (PTMB) constituye una destacada novedad en el panorama de la planificación y gestión del territorio en España. En efecto, pese a la profundización de las dinámicas metropolitanas, las grandes ciudades españolas no han conocido en los últimos años un avance significativo del planeamiento supramunicipal. En este contexto, el PTMB, que viene a cerrar más de 50 años de polémicas e intentos fallidos, presenta algunos aspectos de especial interés disciplinar y ciudadano. El artículo analiza el documento, haciendo especial hincapié en las cuestiones de carácter metodológico, técnico y de procedimiento administrativo. Así, el trabajo se divide en tres apartados: en el primero se analiza la naturaleza jurídica del plan; en el segundo se expone su proceso de elaboración, tramitación y aprobación; finalmente, el tercer apartado entra a presentar los contenidos del plan en referencia a los espacios abiertos, los asentamientos urbanos y las infraestructuras. Unas breves conclusiones cierran el artículo. Palabras clave: Barcelona, dinámicas metropolitanas, planificación territorial. Coping with Metropolitan Dynamics. The Metropolitan Plan of Barcelona (Abstract) The adoption in April 2010 of the Barcelona Metropolitan Plan (PTMB) is a remarkable novelty in the panorama of spatial planning and urban policies in Spain. Indeed, despite the deepening of the metropolitan dynamics, the large Spanish cities have not known in recent years a significant advance in metropolitan planning. In this context, the PTMB, that comes to close more than 50 years of controversy and failed attempts, presents some aspects of remarkable interest from both academic and policy perspectives. The article analyzes the document, with special emphasis on methodological issues, technical aspects

Discutimos as articulações federativas verticais e horizontais em contextos metropolitanos, partindo da problemática do "lugar" da metrópole frente ao sistema federativo brasileiro. Se, por um lado, municípios que integram regiões metropolitanas se articulam verticalmente com governos estaduais e Federal; por outro lado, estes mesmos municípios se desarticulam horizontalmente. O resultado seria a fragmentação e desintegração da metrópole. Advogamos a necessidade de uma solidariedade institucional a partir das dinâmicas internas à metrópole, ao tempo em que propomos repensar outra configuração federativa para enfrentamento dos problemas metropolitanos.

The metro rail commuters were surveyed about their satisfaction with various features of rail services,
including mode of transport, frequency of usage, preference of public transport, cost and travelling
time, traffic flow, parking facility, safety aspects, areas of improvement, pollution, health and significant
aspects of the metro. Ninety-five percent of the commuters opined that Metro rail was the most
convenient mode of public transportation in Bengaluru city. There was 68% reduction in travel cost
after shifting from a previous mode of transport to the metro rail. These figures were supported by the
increase in ridership figure to 34% from June 2016 to July 2017. Forty-three percent of the commuters
said that the travel cost was reduced by Rs.21-50 per trip. Ninety-nine percent of the commuters stated
that using metro rail reduces travel time when compared to other means of transport. Commuters who
used metro rail daily or occasionally opined that there was 100% safety while travelling in metro rail.
Another significant aspect of the survey was that about 41% of the commuters reach the metro station by
walk. As per this, there were a number of commuters opting to walk rather than use a vehicle to reach the
metro station. Sixty percent of the commuters travelling occasionally stated that there was a partial
reduction in vehicle density after the introduction of the metro rail. Most commuters (96%) opined that
they did not experience any health-related issues while travelling in metro rail. Fifty-five percent of the
commuters mentioned that there was a partial reduction in pollution levels and 48% opined that there
was a partial improvement in air quality after the introduction of metro rail. A greater proportion of the
commuters (65%) opined that there was an improvement in the flow of traffic of Bengaluru city after the
introduction of metro rail. Overall, aspects such as connectivity, frequency and parking facility were the
major areas that required improvement.

Metropolises are exploding. Experiencing rapid growth phenomena for the first time in history. We need a discipline of knowledge to manage them. This series of 20 inception lectures attempt to explore the basics of the new discipline we have to build.
Links to Videos, slides and transcriptions.

Globalization efforts, socioeconomic concerns shaping cities, the integration of innovative technologies into planning strategies, and attempts to deal with increasing populations have added a “new breath” to planning concepts. Airport cities could be defined as examples of postmodern cities in metropolitan areas in which the airport (with its related departments) is centered as a focal point and other facilities encircle the airport hub up to 30 kms outward in a mutualistic manner. Considering the crucial role of airports in the 21st-century globalized world; travel activities such as international connections, business contacts, congresses, accommodation, and so forth should take place in a short time with easy access. Airport cities can provide all these elements without the need to go to the metropolitan city center and generate a new potential for the reconstruction and development of metropolitan areas. This study aims to investigate the basic information about airport cities with their spatial structure, components, general characteristics, environmental and economic impacts, and critical contributions to metropolitan areas through a theoretical framework. The study consists of three main stages in the framework of qualitative methods, such as data collection, comparison, and evaluation: (I) introduction and theoretical investigation of airport cities with their historical background, key concepts and characteristics, effects on the environment, and their role in sustainability; (II) inquiry into the theoretical knowledge through a case study (Stockholm–Arlanda Airport City); (III) and discussions on the potentials, possible impacts, and stimulating dynamics of airport cities regarding the future of metropolitan areas.

Resumen: Este artículo comienza con una reflexión introductoria general sobre los factores estructurales y coyunturales que explican la insistencia actual de diversos autores en cuestiones tales como la insuficiencia del planeamiento urbanístico para encauzar la política territorial en España, de donde derivaría en parte el descrédito actual del urbanismo y la ordenación del territorio. Pero, además los factores económicos y sociales conviven con otros de naturaleza jurídicoadministrativa y política. Se insiste en el problema que supone el obsoleto papel central que
mantiene el planeamiento municipal en un periodo en que se imponen las dinámicas supralocales y la integración territorial. Tras este encuadre preliminar este trabajo expone, con sus luces y sus sombras, la experiencia reciente de Cataluña en materia de ordenación del territorio, desde los antecedentes legislativos y la evolución del planeamiento territorial hasta la creación del Programa de Planeamiento Territorial en enero de 2004. Se examinan también los contenidos y las bases metodológicas de los planes desarrollados. Se examinan también los contenidos y las bases metodológicas de los planes desarrollados. Cierran el trabajo unas reflexiones críticas
acerca del proceso y los retos que plantea su evolución futura

In 2007 the French government announced the “Grand Paris” initiative. This ambitious project reimagined the Paris region as integrated, balanced, global, sustainable, and prosperous. Metropolitan solidarity would unite divided populations; a new transportation system, the Grand Paris Express, would connect the affluent city proper with the low-income suburbs; streamlined institutions would replace fragmented governance structures. Grand Paris is more than a redevelopment plan; it is a new paradigm for urbanism. In this first English-language examination of Grand Paris, Theresa Enright offers a critical analysis of the early stages of the project, considering whether it can achieve its twin goals of economic competitiveness and equality.

Enright argues that by orienting the city around growth and marketization, Grand Paris reproduces the social and spatial hierarchies it sets out to address. For example, large expenditures for the Grand Paris Express are made not for the public good but to increase the attractiveness of the region to private investors, setting off a real estate boom, encouraging gentrification, and leaving many residents still unable to get from here to there.

Enright describes Grand Paris as an example of what she calls “grand urbanism,” large-scale planning that relies on infrastructural megaprojects to reconfigure urban regions in pursuit of speculative redevelopment. Democracy and equality suffer under processes of grand urbanism. Given the logic of commodification on which Grand Paris is based, these are likely to suffer as the project moves forward.

El texto, elaborado para la conferencia inaugural del III Congreso Internacional de Geografía Urbana (III-CIGU) en la Universidad Nacional de Luján (Buenos Aires, 12 de septiembre de 2019), debate los retos a los que las ciudades deben hacer frente hoy desde el punto de vista de su forma, función, metabolismo, cohesión y el gobierno.

With the increase in the number of internet users in the country (India), led to a new form of crimes known as Cyber Crime. No doubt, the internet revolution has been a boon to mankind in many fields. However, the dark side of it also gaining ground which can be seen with an increase in the cyber crime cases in the last few years, especially in metropolitan cities. So, this paper tries to analyse the secondary data related to cyber crimes in metropolitan cities in India.
Key Words: Cyber Crime; Metropolitan Cities; Persons Arrested; Conviction; Police Pendency; Court Pendency, etc.

Periurbanizarea este un proces în urma căruia rezidenții, locuințele, industria și activitatea comercială se extind dincolo de limitele tradiționale ale orașului, generând peisaje dispersate conectate cu orașul prin intermediul navetiștilor (Gregory, Johnston, Pratt, Watts, & Whatmore, 2009).
Zona metropolitană Iași prezintă un caracter heterogen din perspectiva dezvoltării elementelor ce compun periurbanul. Astfel, zona metropolitană Iași  oferă o imagine de ansamblu cosmopolită, cu spații profund rurale aflate în imediata vecinătate a orașului dar și spații rezidențiale periurbane dezvoltate.
Pornind de la premisa  că legitatea ce oferă atractivitate unui teritoriu este proximitatea față de serviciile ce prezintă o frecvență mai ridicată, acest studiu se axează pe evidențierea atractivității zonelor rezidențiale periurbane în funcție de localizarea acestor servicii.
Factorii generatori în delimitarea spațiului rezidențial sunt într-o strânsă legătură cu  distanța-timp față de facilitățile de bază. Accesibilitatea poate fi definită ca abilitatea de interacțiune a elementelor ce compun un spațiu cu oferta spațiului proxim (și toate elementele aferente acestuia). Astfel, posibilii rezidenți ai spațiului periurban sunt influențați de o localizare cât mai optimă față de facilitățile cu frecvență ridicată oferite în mod curent locuitorilor din urban. Teoretic, cu cât un teritoriu aflat în proximitatea orașului își însușește mai multe facilități caracteristice urbanului, cu atât acesta dobândește o prestanță mai puternică, scoțând în evidență elementele ce compun un spațiu rezidențal în adevăratul sens al  cuvântului.
Lucrarea de față analizează comportamentul teritorial al elementelor periurbane ce îl compun vis-a-vis de componentele proprii, iar apoi de cele oferite de arealul urban proxim, luând în calcul principiul minimului efort și principiul concurenței spațiale.

Este capítulo, elaborado em 2002, integra o documento técnico do plano Metrópole Estratégica, promovido pela FIDEM - Fundação de Desenvolvimento Municipal do governo de Pernambuco, como parte do programa Cities Alliance do Word Bank. O texto traz uma síntese da formação da metrópole e de seus elementos estruturadores. Analisa tendências e identifica territórios de oportunidade na Região Metropolitana do Recife.

This book represents a powerful analysis of the challenges of metropolitan governance in all its messiness and complexity. It examines Latin American metropolitan governance by focusing on the issue of public service provision and comparatively examining five of the largest and most complex urban agglomerations in the region: Buenos Aires, Bogota, Lima, Mexico City and Santiago.

The volume identifies and discusses the most pressing challenges associated with metropolitan coordination and the coverage, quality and financial sustainability of service delivery. It also reveals a number of spatial inequalities associated with inadequate provision, which may perpetuate poverty and other inequalities.

Metropolitan Governance in Latin America will be valuable reading for advanced students, researchers and policymakers tackling themes of urban planning, spatial inequality, public service provision and Latin American urban development.

At the center of a media and political debate, the Grand Paris topic is blurred by the quantity of news and opinions which are continuously spread, made misted in the complex interaction between the stakes of public interest and divergent wills – essentially political – of the numerous actors. This paper proposes studying the construction process of the Grand Paris as an applicative example of the strategic spatial planning methods, decisive in the determining bend taken by the management of the Paris region development. It implies, to well measure the scope of the subject, taking into account the urban area of Paris, as it is the capital-region, has a singular status in the national context. It justifies the interest to integrate this question into a wider reflection, which accounts for the intricacy of the administrative levels involved in the management of territorial planning as well as the confuse distribution of assignments. This institutional complexity, which appears as an important source of conflicts and slowness in terms of public policies, allows explaining the multiplicity of actors, interests and procedures which articulates the construction of the Grand Paris. Planned at the moment of its launch in 2008 by the government, as an attempt of redefining the priority guidelines of the urban area, with the clear objective of replacing the French capital to the rank of world-cities, the metropolitan project carried by the Grand Paris appears as a major change in the planning practices of the Paris region. The analysis of the successive planning procedures which took place reflects indeed the evolution of the various applied theories of planning. If the traditional model inspired the first regional Master Plans which were developed by the State, it is the collaborative model that the Region, which afterward got back the planning assignments at the regional scale, tried to implement within the framework of the SDRIF revision, approved in 2013. It is thus in confrontation with these procedures that the Grand Paris project has been launched. The study of its strategic dimension is based on the analysis of the actors' configuration, the contents and the committed perimeters of action. This approach allows to shed light on the stakes manifested on this occasion between the various administrative levels – sometimes grouped in communities of interest – in the claiming of their legitimacy to govern and to plan the territories of the urban area; and on the consequences of the confrontation – materialized in particular by the conflict between the State and the Region on the transport project – between the different stakeholders. This contextual analysis leads to question the strategic character of the results achieved until now, often concluded at the end of compromise agreements; as well as the evolution of the planning process subjected to the pressures of the politico-institutional system and to its variations. This process has in one hand the merit to reveal the complexity of the actors set and the superimposed territorial realities, and in the other hand, to permit the construction of a debate zone between the diverse stakeholders (experts, politicians and civil society). This one should even so be clarified to create a legitimate arena of discussion which establishes the constructive bases of the strategic project of the Parisian metropolis.

Kunz B. Ignacio (2015).  Dinámica Demográfica y Desarrollo Urbano en la Zona Metropolitana de Querétaro, en El reto Metropolitano, Ignacio Kunz B. (coord.). Punto Cero para el Desarrollo S.C. Instituto Queretano de la Cultura, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Querétaro.

Abstract:
This paper situates ‘bazaar’ as a site of multifaceted exploration. It is as much an inquiry into a bazaar (‘Janpath’ in New Delhi) as it is into the modes of knowledge about the bazaar. Challenging the representation of the postcolonial bazaar as a bizarre relic of the past or the pure theoretical market, I make the case for viewing it as a socioeconomic site of modernity. The symbolic geography of this site is contested, populated as it is, with the evocations, expectations, and histories of the various implicated human constituencies.
Bazaars are integral to cultural imaginaries, and I start by presenting some of the ways in which they have functioned to excite fantasy and fear. In spite of this, bazaars are often conceptualised primarily as an economic space to ‘truck, barter and exchange’. I suggest that in this characterisation there is a problematic slippage between the market and the bazaar. The bazaar is not simply another market. Neither is the market itself any much more than a convenient fiction for the purposes of an abstract deductive political economy which obtains its purchase on the ‘economic’ realm by a perpetual erasure of subjectivity and particularity under the signs of objectivity, generality and science. While, even to many anthropologists, the appeal of judging the bazaar against a pervasive ideal of the market continues to be irresistible, I argue that the bazaar offers a valuable site to challenge the culture/economy separation that characterises much thinking about the economic realm. It is to this effect that the paper travels to re-member the coming into being of a specific bazaar – the Janpath. What makes this travel interesting is the forays it makes into issues of governmentality, patriarchy, livelihoods under capitalist globalisation, nationstatism, in other words, the spatial and symbolic contexts of postcolonial modernity in India.
...

Overview:
The bazaar has been an exotic site and its rationality has been the subject of rescue endeavours in much research. In contrast, I have argued that we need to see the bazaar as a fertile ground – a hybrid space for stories, for theories, and for explorations of the nation-state, of capitalism, colonialism, globalisation, and governmentality. In particular, the Janpath Bazaar provides us with a site for exploring diverse postcolonial subjectivities under the influence of a weighty history and the diffuse operation of coercive power. If we see it as a space unrarefied by the disciplinary boundaries of culture, economy, history, theory, literature, activism – it can be the site for exploring several interconnected issues as they are lived, experienced, and observed. This paper has travelled to transgress the story/theory modes of enquiry in the hope of presenting the poetics and politics of bazaars in general and the Janpath bazaar in particular as contested spaces with many layers of meaning that undo the pervasive and problematic separations of culture and economy in modernity.

El objetivo de nuestro análisis es investigar el proceso de metropolización del territorio en el estado de Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. El punto de partida del análisis es el proceso de desconcentración en la metrópoli y región metropolitana de Porto Alegre y sus efectos en la dinámica urbana y territorial del estado. Rio Grande do Sul es el estado más sureño de Brasil, con una población de 11 millones de habitantes y con el cuarto PIB entre los estados brasileños. Es un estado de frontera con Argentina y Uruguay. Su economía, fuertemente basada en la producción agraria, la cual impulsa inclusive la producción industrial, es muy afectada por los flujosde mercancías del Mercosur.

Strategic metropolitan plans typically have a planning horizon of 30 to 40 years, covering extensive geographic areas, addressing a gamut of issues, and involving different levels of governments and a number of institutions. These necessitate the needs to plan for future unknowns and uncertainties. A quick search on literary sources confirms the view that this issue has not been given sufficient intellectual focus. Hence, this prompts a scholarly inquiry on “How can strategic metropolitan plans deal with future unknowns and uncertainties more effectively?” As Benjamin Franklin once said, “if we fail to plan, we plan to fail”, failure to plan strategically on a metropolitan level will result in excessive urban sprawl, energy inefficiency and an ineffective public transport system.

To better gauge future unknowns and uncertainties, this essay argues that the time-linearity linkage theory, scenario planning approach, Rumsfeld's concept of knowns and unknowns, interpersonal, inter-areal and intergenerational equities, as well as dynamic sustainabilities (stability, resilience, durability and robustness) are some of the most important concepts to explore to deal with with the "perfect storm" created by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). This essay aims to contribute to how strategic metropolitan plan can better plan for future unknowns and uncertainties, thus furthering the discussion among policy-makers.

The 2014 GLM M1 students visited the metropolitan regions of Casablanca and Tangier in Morocco, from January 9th to 15th, 2014.
47 students were accompanied by 3 professors (Tommaso Vitale, Agnès Deboulet and Régine Serra).
This year, the study trip aimed at observing the dynamics of metropolisation in two major port cities of the region, and addressed the issues of economic development, social inclusion and great projects.
This students' study trip report

El artículo aborda el tema de la delimitación de la ciudad contemporánea ante el avance del proceso de urbanización, la integración del territorio  y la generalización de las formas de vida urbana. Después de describir brevemente este proceso, se estudian las diversas metodologías existentes para la delimitación de las áreas urbanas: las técnicas jurídico-administrativas, el análisis morfológico, la cuantifiación de las relaciones funcionales, la identificación de la estructura económica y la jerarquía de los servicios. De la panorámica resultante aparece con claridad que, pese a los méritos que cada una de dichas metodologías pueda contener, la delimitación unívoca de la ciudad es un empeño inalcanzable desde una perspectiva científica. Por ello, se concluye, la delimitación de la ciudad depende hoy ante todo del proyecto que la colectividad quiera desarrollar sobre el territorio.  Es pues, antes que nada una decisión política de la cual depende, en buena medida, la capacidad de gobernar las transformaciones en beneficio de la mayoría de la población.

Cette thèse croise les concepts de planification, de gouvernance et de transit-oriented development (TOD) par une étude de la production, de la mise en débat et de l’adoption du plan métropolitain d’aménagement et de développement (PMAD) de la Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM). Elle expose les résultats de quatre années de recherche qualitative sur les impacts de l’épisode du PMAD et de la stratégie TOD de la CMM sur les pratiques planificatrices et les processus décisionnels du Grand Montréal à l’échelle métropolitaine. Elle révèle que la planification métropolitaine et l’objectif de coordination du transport et de l’aménagement en général ainsi que le PMAD et le concept de TOD en particulier y sont des instruments de gouvernance. Les chapitres 2, 3 et 4 présentent la problématique, le terrain d’enquête et la démarche méthodologique de cette recherche. Le chapitre 5 relate l’épisode du PMAD en analysant son contenu, les procédures par lesquelles la CMM l’a produit, mis en débat et adopté, les réactions des parties prenantes de la région quant à ces aspects et la façon dont elles comptent assurer le suivi de sa mise en œuvre. Le chapitre 6 illustre comment cet épisode a fait du PMAD un instrument de gouvernance pour le Grand Montréal en décortiquant le rôle de la participation publique, des médias, des acteurs des milieux régional et local, des élus, de la CMM et de la société civile de la région au sein de ce processus de changement de registre de la planification et de la gouvernance les déployant sur des bases plus stratégiques et collaboratives. Le chapitre 7 montre que cet épisode a aussi fait du TOD un instrument de gouvernance pour le Grand Montréal en détaillant les tenants et aboutissants du processus d’appropriation, de marchand(is)age et d’instrumentalisation du concept par les élites politiques et techniques à des fins de marketing territorial et de construction de capital politique ouvrant la voie à la stabilisation d’une gouvernance en matière d’aménagement métropolitain. Il se dégage de cette thèse que ces profondes transformations que subissent actuellement la planification et la gouvernance exacerbent le caractère symbiotique de la relation qui les unit. | This dissertation crosses the concepts of planning, governance and transit-oriented development (TOD) through a study of the production, debate and adoption of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC)’s Metropolitan Land Use and Development Plan (MLUDP). It presents the results of four years of qualitative research on the impacts of the MMC’s MLUDP episode and TOD strategy on the Greater Montreal Area’s metropolitan planning practices and decision-making processes. It reveals that metropolitan planning and the transportation-land use coordination objective in general as well as the MLUDP and the TOD concept in particular are governance instruments for the region. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 present the problem, field of investigation and methodology of this research. Chapter 5 describes the MLUDP episode by analysing its content, the procedures by which the MMC produced, debated and adopted it, the area’s stakeholders’ reaction to these issues and how they intend to ensure the monitoring of its implementation. Chapter 6 illustrates how this episode has made the MLUDP a governance instrument for the Greater Montreal Area by scrutinising the role of public participation, the media, stakeholders of the local and regional scales, the elected officials, the MMC and the area’s civil society in this process of registry change for planning and governance deploying them on more strategic and collaborative bases. Chapter 7 shows that this episode also made TOD a governance instrument for the Greater Montreal Area by detailing the ins and outs of the process of appropriation, bargaining/merchandising and instrumentalisation of the concept by the political and technical elites for territorial marketing and political capital construction purposes paving the way for the stabilisation of a governance on metropolitan land use and development. It emerges from this dissertation that the profound transformations currently affecting planning and governance exacerbate the symbiotic nature of the relationship that unites them.

Utopian visions and diagrams have engaged in a multitude of relationships. For example, a utopian narrative can be conceived as a diagram, or with the aid of diagrams, and understood through diagrammatic (re) annotation. This notion is explored through an interpretation of Thomas More’s Utopia and Andrea Branzi’s Agronica. Both schemes address various structural conditions through diagrammatic operations. In More’s scheme the channel that separates Utopia from the mainland, dug by its putative founder King Abraxas, inscribes a circular boundary, reiterated in the city walls and moat; it is resonant with contemporaneous rota and volvelle schemata. Conversely, Andrea Branzi’s “mirror simulator” multiplies Agronica’s centrifugal grid to infinity, negating the “outside,” and is evocative of pervasive virtual networks.