Journal of Planning Education and Research recent issues

Report from the Editors

Wu, W., Brooks, M. — 2009-09-24

Modeling Housing Appreciation Dynamics in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods

Galster, G., Tatian, P. — 2009-09-24

There is long-standing interest in predicting if and when less advantaged urban neighborhoods will experience upsurges in their housing prices, yet little research has investigated year-to-year neighborhood price dynamics. The authors advance knowledge in this realm by employing anually updated, readily available indicators created from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and assessor’s data from Washington, D.C., census tracts for 1995 to 2005 to estimate a hazard model of the year when consistent, substantial, and sustained housing price appreciation starts in disadvantaged neighborhoods, based on predictors measured one and two years in advance. The results suggest that proximity to stronger neighborhoods, a robust metropolitan housing market, and inflows of higher-status home buyers are key predictors of appreciation onset in disadvantaged neighborhoods, but replications and refinements are needed before firm generalizations about this process can be made.

Group Learning in Participatory Planning Processes: An Exploratory Quasiexperimental Analysis of Local Mitigation Planning in Florida

Deyle, R., Schively Slotterback, C. — 2009-09-24

Scholars have identified group learning as both an outcome of effective participatory planning processes and as the means to achieving agreement on planning outputs and to building constituencies for plan implementation. This article examines the challenges of designing empirical studies of group learning in participatory planning processes that have strong internal and external validity and reports the results of a quasiexperimental analysis of how different degrees of participation increase mutual understanding of planning problems and solutions.

Deliberative Planning in a Multicultural Milieu

Umemoto, K., Igarashi, H. — 2009-09-24

This article explores the utility of deliberative planning theory given the scholarly debate over its limitations and prospects. A case study situated in the Japanese city of Kawasaki illustrates how deliberative planning theory can illuminate the limitations of deliberative planning theory and practice while revealing potential paths to create more democratic and inclusive planning processes. The case underscores the importance of (1) public acknowledgement of the constraints to deliberative planning, (2) deliberating over the design of a deliberative process, (3) mitigating identified constraints to deliberative planning, and (4) being open to alternative or parallel strategies given structural and other constraints in deliberative processes.

Relationships between Residential Development and the Environment: Examining Resident Perspectives

Asligul Gocmen, Z. — 2009-09-24

This research explores how residents perceive the relationships between residential development patterns and the natural environment. Based on a fall 2004 survey of 283 residents from urban, suburban, exurban, and conservation neighborhoods in Michigan’s Washtenaw and Livingston Counties, this research indicates that residents may not have a clear understanding of the environmental impacts of residential development. The results suggest a need for environmental education especially with regard to the land development and water quality relationship and the impacts of large-lot, automobile-dependent developments. The study also suggests that further research is needed on the relationship between land development and the environment.

The Use of LEED in Planning and Development Regulation: An Exploratory Analysis

Retzlaff, R. C. — 2009-09-24

Some jurisdictions in the United States have enacted green building policies and incentives that use a building assessment system to rate their sustainability. One such system is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Using data from a survey of LEED policy administrators and a comparison of LEED policies, this research seeks to understand the status and structure of such policies, their impacts on the built environment, how they work in practice, and the role of planners. The article outlines three types of policies that use the LEED system— government requirements, requirements for private development, and incentives— and finds that LEED policies have been very narrowly applied. Planners have an important role in administering green building polices because they address issues beyond building design and construction and require a holistic and integrative perspective.

Commuting Trends in U.S. Cities in the 1990s

Lee, B., Gordon, P., Richardson, H. W., Moore, J. E. — 2009-09-24

This article attempts to explain the increase in commuting times in the 1990s after decades of stability. Although traditional explanations, for example both demographic variables (population growth and densities) and transportation variables (e.g. road capacity and transit use), pass the statistical significance tests, their overall impact was small. Instead, the article argues for the importance of strong income growth in the late 1990s, not least because it was associated with an increase in non-work vehicle miles traveled; these affect commuting times because many non-work trips take place in peak hours.

Contracts and Retaliation: Securing Housing Exchanges in the Interstice of the Formal/ Informal Beirut (Lebanon) Housing Market

Fawaz, M. — 2009-09-24

The current housing policy paradigm supports the integration of informal settlements’ housing markets with the larger housing markets. Given, however, that housing production and exchange happen in a continuum of formal and informal processes, this article seeks to look at the effects of this integration on the conditions of housing acquisition for low-income urban dwellers. Based on a case study in Hayy el-Sellom (Beirut), the article traces the changing practices that ensued from the integration of this informal settlement’s housing market in the affordable housing market of the city’s suburbs by looking at how exchanges were secured and redress sought in cases of default. Research findings indicate that the introduction of practices borrowed from the larger housing market did not improve market securities. This suggests that rather than focusing on the formal—informal divide, planners should devise context-specific methods to address locally identified market weaknesses.

Commentary: Virtual Planning: Second Life and the Online Studio

Hollander, J. B., Thomas, D. — 2009-09-24

This article reports on the use of Second Life in three urban planning and design courses. Second Life is one of the latest in a new breed of computer games based on the simultaneous use of virtual three-dimensional space by millions of users throughout the globe. The course instructors found that while the virtual planning studio can introduce real dangers to students and technological limitations exist, Second Life provides a heretofore unprecedented tool for teaching planning.

Commentary: Pervasive Urban Media Documentation

Krieger, M. H., Govindan, R., Ra, M.-R., Paek, J. — 2009-09-24

Review: City Bound: How States Stifle Urban Innovation, by Gerald E. Frug and David J. Barron. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 2008. 260 pages. $35.00 (hardback)

Fischel, W. A. — 2009-09-24

Review: Energy for Sustainability: Technology, Planning, Policy, by John Randolph and Gilbert M. Masters. Washington, DC: Island Press. 2008. 816 pages. $85.00 (hardback)

Throgmorton, J. A. — 2009-09-24

Urban Transformations: Understanding City Design and Form, by Peter Bosselman. Washington, Covelo, London: Island Press. 2008. 310 pages. $45 (paperback), $90 (hardcover)

Banerjee, T. — 2009-09-24

Linking Social Capital and Indirect Policy Tools: Fostering Equitable Community Reinvestment Responses?

Casey, C. L. — 2009-06-08

Governance perspectives suggest the boundaries between public and private sectors are blurred, and recognize the involvement of third party actors in carrying out public objectives. Traditional policy models neglect to consider the involvement of third part actors and limit our understanding of the effectiveness of these approaches. By adopting a policy tools perspective, the potential and limitations of governance approaches can be better understood. Indirect policy tools can foster collective action around public problems by incorporating third party actors; however, it is necessary to understand the interaction between indirect tools and structural social capital. The actors involved in carrying out public objectives may depend upon the linkages between top-down and bottom-up social capital. A qualitative analysis of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 suggests indirect policy tools can foster collective reinvestment responses, but the effectiveness of indirect policy tools is contingent upon the existence of linking social capital.

Public Markets as Community Development Tools

Morales, A. — 2009-06-08

Public markets were once essential parts of the cityscape and they are becoming so again. Markets serve several purposes, social, political, and economic, and so planners interested in multipurpose tools for development will be interested in public markets. Markets can help achieve a variety of goals including place-making, employment, and entrepreneurship. This article focuses on markets as tools of business incubation. Archival data and literature shows how important markets once were to cities. Ethnographically collected data from Chicago's Maxwell Street market illustrates the individual and structural factors that account for businesses created at the market. Rural and urban markets are emerging or being rehabilitated all over the country — this research helps planners understand the history of markets, their multi-disciplinary nature, and the circumstances of people creating businesses at markets.

Integrating Hazard Mitigation into New Urban and Conventional Developments

Berke, P. R., Yan Song, , Stevens, M. — 2009-06-08

The twentieth century model of the sprawling metropolis has fostered a massive build up of highly vulnerable development. New Urbanism has emerged to counter many of the societal ills of sprawl, but there is growing concern about placing this compact urban form in harm's way. Using 33 matched pairs of New Urban and conventional low-density developments we examine how well New Urban developments located in hazardous areas incorporate hazard mitigation techniques. Findings indicate that New Urban developments are compounding the growing risk to hazards by potentially adding higher density development than in the past. We recommend changes in New Urban model codes, and public policy that places more emphasis on mitigation through comprehensive planning.

Roads to Poverty: Exploring the Impacts of Economic Integration on Socioeconomic Conditions and Land Use in Northern Guatemala

Shriar, A. J. — 2009-06-08

This article examines socioeconomic and land use changes associated with the ongoing, rapid economic integration of Petén, Guatemala, which has resulted mainly through road improvements. The study is based primarily on fieldwork conducted by the author before (1998) and after (2005) access roads were paved, greatly reducing travel times to and from the region. Petén's farmers now must compete with larger, more efficient, and often subsidized producers elsewhere in the country and beyond, whereas large-scale commercial farmers and ranchers are flocking to the region because of its improved access and other factors. Household survey data from one agriculturally important area indicate that most households have become poorer and their farming systems less diverse and that the concentration of land and wealth is intensifying. Results suggest that infrastructure aimed at enhancing economic integration can marginalize the majority in a previously remote region, particularly when little is done to support residents' ability to compete economically.

Introduction to Symposium: Planning in Complex Multiorganizational Systems

Hopkins, L. D., Alexander, E.R. — 2009-06-08

Are Some Planning Transactions Intrinsically Sovereign?

Webster, C. J. — 2009-06-08

The laws, policies, customary practices and other institutions that govern a country's land development and the pattern of its spatial economy are constantly evolving. They change at the margin and by catastrophe; involving major land reform, minor statutes, economic crises, and gradual shifts in the way things are done. This article analyses the institutions of planning using qualitative models of incomplete contracting. It portrays them as fluid social constructs that adapt according to the relative costs of organizing the transactions that constitute a planning service. The focus is on the way organizational and institutional structures influence and are determined by post-contractual hazards. Post-contractual hazards are risks to the desired outcome of a transaction (for example the risk that a commissioned plan proves to be unworkable or irrelevant). Attention is specifically drawn to probity hazard (following economist Oliver Williamson, 1999). A set of core planning functions (transactions) are examined with the purpose of discovering if there are a priori arguments for retaining certain parts of a planning system within the public bureaucracy.

In What Circumstances Should Plans Be Public?

Kaza, N., Hopkins, L. — 2009-06-08

Characterizing plans as means of interaction and influence among organizations rather than as mechanisms of control over a complex multiorganizational environment frames the question: In what circumstances should plans be shared widely? Organizations have persistent and repeated interactions about many issues, have fractured capabilities and authorities, and make multiple, overlapping, and interacting plans. Some of these plans are public and some of them are kept private because the plan makers and plan users can benefit from doing so. The public-ness or privateness of plans and that of the processes that make plans serve distinct purposes. Examples from recent recovery planning in New Orleans illustrate why and in what circumstances individuals, voluntary groups, and governments choose to plan in public, make their resulting plans public, and find the public plans of others credible. Plans as rhetorics of action, intention, commitment, and influence can be more effective if revealed strategically to particular audiences at particular times.

Planning for Complex Metropolitan Regions: A Better Future or a More Certain One?

Abbott, J. — 2009-06-08

Issues, organizations and plans interact in complex ways in metropolitan regions. Planning seeks to influence this interaction to produce a better future: But there are tensions between seeking a better future and a more certain one. The concept of planning as managing uncertainties is used to explore these tensions in two examples: the 1929 Regional Plan of New York and the SEQ 2001 Project in Australia. The article explores how uncertainties, the intentions and plans of organizations, and processes of agreement interact to affect the efforts of planners, visionary individuals, and governments to deliver plans for a better future.

Symposium Discussion: Planning in Complexity--Institutional Design Implications

Alexander, E.R. — 2009-06-08

Review: Cities in a Time of Terror, by H. V. Savitch. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. 2008. 267 pages. $34.95 (paperback)

Mullin, J. R. — 2009-06-08

Review: Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle, by Matthew Klingle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2007. xix + 344 pp. $30.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-300-11641-0

Kupel, D. E. — 2009-06-08

Review: Green Urbanism Down Under: Learning from Sustainable Communities in Australia, by Timothy Beatley with Peter Newman. Washington, DC: Island Press. 2009. 264 pages. $35.00 (paperback), $70.00 (hardcover)

Forsyth, A. — 2009-06-08

Review: The Living Landscape, 2nd ed., by Frederick Steiner. Washington, DC: Island Press. 2008. 496 pages. $45.00 (paperback). The Fundamentals of Land Development, by David E. Johnson. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 2008. 336 pages. $115.00 (hardback)

Mandarano, L. A. — 2009-06-08

Review: The Politics of Civic Space in Asia: Building Urban Communities, by Amrita Daniere and Mike Douglass. London: Routledge. 2008. 239 pages. $160.00 (hardback)

Hack, G. — 2009-06-08

Acknowledgments

2009-06-08

The Pragmatic Tradition in Planning Thought

Healey, P. — 2009-03-30

This article reviews the influence of U.S. pragmatist philosophy on the development of theories about the nature, purpose, and method of planning. It outlines the key contributions of the pragmatist and "neo-pragmatist" philosophers and identifies the influence of pragmatism on early concepts of planning as a rational process; on the perspectives of Friedmann, Lindblom, and Schon; on the development of Forester's "critical pragmatism"; and on other planning theory contributions in the 1980s and 1990s. The article concludes by identifying the importance of pragmatist ideas in emphasizing the dimensions of planning as a practically situated, social learning activity, which should draw on the full range of human capacities and promote the ability for critical, transformative systemic framing work in the public sphere.

Evaluation of Public Participation: The Practices of Certified Planners

Laurian, L., Shaw, M. M. — 2009-03-30

Public participation has become a central element of planning activity over the last decades. The planning literature has given considerable attention to participation in theory and practice, discussing its benefits for democratic governance, its multiple goals and criteria for assessing success. Although planning academics and practitioners understand the importance of participation and know that participatory processes often fail, the field of participation evaluation lags behind. This paper explores how often, why and how planners evaluate participation in practice. It builds on data collected through a nationally representative survey of 761 AICP-certified planners. We find that they rarely evaluate participation formally. Informal evaluations rely on a wide range of criteria about participation processes and outcomes consistent with the criteria identified by planning theory. The paper presents these evaluation criteria and the practices and recommendation of the planners with most experience in participation evaluation.

Urban Planning and State Reform: From Industrial Suburbs to Gated Communities

Libertun de Duren, N. R. — 2009-03-30

This article explores how the relationship between the economic activities of urban elites and the national economy explain the historical changes on the land uses of the urban periphery. It traces the social and economic paths that led Buenos Aires from an industrial hub to a sprawling city that juxtaposes gated communities and informal settlements. After a brief review that places this research within the literature on gated communities, the organization of the article follows the chronology of Argentina's national governments from 1976 until 1999. The article links the changes in national industrialization policies with the allocation of land for the development of gated communities in Buenos Aires's suburbs. The article concludes with an assessment of the effects these spatial changes had on the suburban polity.

Assessing Planning School Performance: Multiple Paths, Multiple Measures

Stiftel, B., Forsyth, A., Dalton, L., Steiner, F. — 2009-03-30

To grow and prosper in an era when university departments are increasingly assessed comparatively and critically by national systems of accountability and ranking, planning schools need data that reflect the wide range of activities undertaken by planning educators. Recent developments surrounding planning school assessment in U.S. planning schools are considered in light of the history of university unit performance measurement internationally, and suggestions are made for development of a robust system of planning school assessment that includes the breadth of academic planners' work.

Introduction to Symposium: Is Progressive Regionalism an Actionable Framework for Critical Planning Theory and Practice?

Pezzoli, K., Hibbard, M., Huntoon, L. — 2009-03-30

This symposium is the most recent in a series of activities by the guest editors, aimed at advancing planning scholarship under the rubric of progressive regionalism. Progressive regionalism is concerned with equity and sustainability in the search for innovative ways to improve urban and regional development - that is, with solutions that are networked, systems-oriented, globally-minded, ecologically sound and holistic. The strengths and weaknesses of progressive regionalism merit careful analysis and debate. The authors in this symposium address aspects of the question: Does progressive regionalism cohere as an actionable framework for critical planning theory and practice?

Integrating Investment and Equity: A Critical Regionalist Agenda for a Progressive Regionalism

Clark, J., Christopherson, S. — 2009-03-30

Since the 1980s, different conceptions of regionalism have emerged, reflecting distinct perspectives on place and space and a variety of policy orientations. The debates in planning over which regional policies are both "equitable" and "democratic" have been intense. This article clarifies these debates through a critical regionalist approach to the two prominent "regionalisms," investment and distributive. This article then proposes how to strengthen the connections between investment and distributive regionalism and build on the successful practices in each arena. The authors argue that a progressive regionalism requires focus on (1) the labor market as a whole and (2) multiscalar coalitions and policy initiatives.

Going Regional: Community-Based Regionalism, Transportation, and Local Hiring Agreements

Swanstrom, T., Banks, B. — 2009-03-30

Community-based regionalism (CBR) is the attempt by community-based organizations (CBOs) to reorient regional policies to benefit disadvantaged communities. Advocates of CBR have mostly called not for regional governments, but for collaborative regional governance processes. This article examines the efforts of (CBOs) to form regional governance processes that target jobs from federally funded transportation projects to disadvantaged communities. Transportation policy has long been dominated by a policy monopoly centered on state departments of transportation and their highway engineers. By balancing conflict and collaboration, entrepreneurial CBOs have been able to penetrate this policy monopoly and negotiate successful local hiring agreements using collaborative regional governance processes. We conclude that success will be limited, however, without supportive federal and state policies.

Risk-averse Regionalism: The Cautionary Tale of Portland, Oregon, and Affordable Housing

Provo, J. — 2009-03-30

Looking for lessons for an emerging progressive regionalism, this article examines a stymied effort by a leading case of new regionalism to forge a regional consensus on affordable housing. It highlights a risk-averse streak in Portland, Oregon's regionalism, emerging when the region moved beyond implementation of state mandates in affordable housing. Such issues, with implications for social and economic equity, clearly engender controversy. Progressive action in these areas may require support from higher levels of government and a greater acceptance of conflict as a part of politics and governance, neither of which was on display in the Portland case.

Commentary: A Multiuniversity Planning Studio at the World Planning Congress: An Opportunity for International Planning Education

Dandekar, H. C. — 2009-03-30

The need to internationalize planning education is increasingly apparent, but planning programs in the United States have varying capabilities and resources to incorporate an international dimension in their curriculum. Offering a multiuniversity studio and study abroad course in Mexico, in conjunction with the World Congress in 2006, provided an opportunity to collaboratively address this need. The synergies that accrued are worth considering. An argument is made for adopting similar studio efforts as an integral component of future World Planning Congresses.

Commentary: Overcoming the Challenges of Post-disaster Planning in New Orleans: Lessons from the ACORN Housing/University Collaborative

Reardon, K. M., Green, R., Bates, L. K., Kiely, R. C. — 2009-03-30

This article describes how New Orleans ACORN members established a highly productive partnership with more than ninety urban planning students and faculty from Cornell, Columbia and Illinois in 2006 to produce a resident-inspired recovery plan for the Ninth Ward. The article explains how participants in this complex community/university partnership overcame significant racial, class, and age barriers to produce "The People's Plan for Overcoming the Hurricane Katrina Blues" that successfully used primary data regarding building conditions and residents' rate of return to encourage public officials, in the spirit of Paul Davidoff, to reinvest in this historic area of the city.

Response to "Post-Disaster Planning in New Orleans": Necessary Conditions for Community Partnerships

Rubin, V. — 2009-03-30

Response to "Post-Disaster Planning in New Orleans"

Thompson, J. P. — 2009-03-30

Response to "Post-Disaster Planning in New Orleans": It Isn't as Simple as It Seems

Birch, E. L. — 2009-03-30

"Ground-Truthing" Representations of Social Space: Using Lefebvre's Conceptual Triad

Carp, J. — 2008-12-19

Planning requires accurate representation of a planning situation to formulate appropriate intervention that protects and promotes a common good. But most representations of social space are significantly limited by the distinct purposes of discipline, expertise, and policy domain, while planning is expected to be participatory and inclusive of all kinds of interrelationship. The article presents a method, based on an interpretation of Lefebvre's conceptual triad, for building a more comprehensive understanding of planning situations that involves recognizing sociospatial differences and investigating their interrelationship. Examples from the author's teaching, research, and community service in planning demonstrate ways in which the physical, conceptual, and social aspects of planning situations are at work and accessible.

Comparing Rural and Urban Children's Perceptions of an Ideal Community

Machemer, P. L., Bruch, S. P., Kuipers, R. — 2008-12-19

While there is research on children's participation, what is needed are investigations on how children perceive community design and whether the geographic location in which the children live has an effect on their perceptions of an ideal community. The objectives of this study are to (1) identify children's ideal community elements and (2) determine if there are any differences in rural and urban children's perceptions. Models of an ideal community are created by ninety-three rural children and fifty urban children in a design charrette. Model content is analyzed using multivariate statistics to identify element and pattern preferences. Principal component analysis of the resultant thirty-eight models reveals that for the rural children, six components are considered significant dimensions and explain 67 percent of the variance, with the first component accounting for nearly 27 percent of the variance. For the urban children, four components are significant and explain 51 percent of the variance, with the first component accounting for nearly 15 percent of the variance. Spatial diagrams indicate that there is a difference between the rural and urban models. Furthermore, discriminant analysis reveals that there is a statistical difference between the content of the urban and rural models at a significance level of .007.

Graduated Density Zoning

Shoup, D. — 2008-12-19

The difficulty of assembling sites large enough to redevelop at higher density can impede regeneration in city centers and accelerate suburban sprawl onto large sites already in single ownership. One promising new planning strategy to encourage voluntary land assembly is graduated density zoning, which allows higher density on larger sites. This strategy can increase the incentive for owners to cooperate in a land assembly that creates higher land values. Graduated density zoning will not eliminate the incentive to hold out, but it can create a new fear of being left out. Holdouts who are left with sites that cannot be combined with enough contiguous properties to trigger higher density lose a valuable economic opportunity. This article examines the difficulty of assembling land for infill development, and explains graduated density zoning as a way to encourage voluntary land assembly. Finally, it presents the results of graduated density zoning in practice.

Expanding Planning's Public Sphere: STREET Magazine, Activist Planning, and Community Development in Brooklyn, New York, 1971--1975

Wolf-Powers, L. — 2008-12-19

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a paradigm of activist planning became a new "tributary" feeding the stream of the planning profession. STREET magazine, published from 1971 to 1975 by the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development in Brooklyn, NY, offers a lens through which to examine the expansion of the profession to encompass a range of ideas associated with this paradigm. This article, drawing on an extensive review of STREET magazine's content within the historical context in which it was produced, as well as interviews with people involved with the publication, argues that STREET reflected the introduction of new modes of practice into the city planning profession, as well as influencing those modes in a particular place, New York City.

Fronts and Backs: The Use of Streets, Yards, and Alleys in Toronto-Area New Urbanist Neighborhoods

Hess, P. M. — 2008-12-19

With New Urbanist ideas reshaping the form of American and Canadian suburban development, this research surveys residents of three Toronto-area neighborhoods to explore how residents use the streets, yards, and alleys immediately adjoining their houses. Despite the presence of attractive front yards and streets, because most of the residents surveyed rely on automobiles stored in alleys for traveling to work or shop, the backdoor is the de facto main entry to their houses. Backyards are also used more frequently and for a wider range of activities than are front yards, and alleys are sites of informal socializing with neighbors. These patterns, however, are not tied to rates of recreational walking or the use of the front yard as an intentional social space, something many residents clearly value.

Household Strategies for Securing Clean Water: The Demand for Piped Water in Vietnam's Peri-Urban Settlements

Spencer, J. H. — 2008-12-19

To date, there have been relatively few studies of small-scale providers of water in developing countries, though they are seen to be important players in peri-urban water supply systems. This paper uses the case of small-scale providers in Can Tho, Vietnam, to examine competition in local water markets, and how piped water compares with a range of lower-quality traditional sources. Although previous studies have usefully employed contingent valuation to estimate the demand for low quality, the evidence provided here estimates demand based on actual household choices regarding water of differing qualities and prices. Using an original household survey, the paper assesses the comparative advantages regarding costs, uses, and perceived advantages/challenges of each source. Findings suggest that household demand for piped water exists, but not on a sufficient scale to obviate more traditional sources, even though it is surprisingly affordable when compared to what residents pay for natural sources. Findings also suggest that the main perceived advantage of the piped system is not for its hygienic quality, but for aesthetic characteristics such as taste, smell, and color. Scholars might continue to pursue research in situations where households are not limited in their ability to choose water sources of varying qualities.

Using Online Satellite Imagery as a Research Tool: Mapping Changing Patterns of Urbanization in Mexico

Monkkonen, P. — 2008-12-19

Research on urbanization in developing-countries is often complicated by a lack of data. Recently available online interfaces with maps and satellite imagery provide a potential source of up-to-date, free, and easy-to-use geographic information. This article evaluates one of these interfaces, Google Earth, as a tool for collecting data, illustrating the evaluation with two methodologies developed to study urbanization in Mexico. The first, used to collect data on road paving and housing density in informal settlements in Tijuana, is deemed successful, while the second, used to generate data on recent urban expansion in several Mexican cities, is not. The problem with the second methodology and primary limitation of the online tool is that satellite image data is presented without clear dates. Thus, its usefulness is determined by the time frame of analysis - as the period of time gets shorter, the uncertainty surrounding the end date becomes increasingly problematic.

In-Class--Online Hybrid Methods of Teaching Planning Theory: Assessing Impacts on Discussion and Learning

Willson, R. W. — 2008-12-19

Planning education can benefit from hybrid teaching methods that use online activities to replace a portion of in-class activity. Research on hybrid courses is lacking, especially for discussion-oriented planning classes. This research evaluates a graduate planning theory course delivered in both hybrid and traditional formats, analyzing student performance, class evaluations and supplemental surveys, and instructor reflection. The findings are as follows: (1) performance of students in the hybrid class was no worse than the traditional class, (2) students were satisfied with online activities but class evaluations were somewhat lower, and (3) the instructor found student learning benefits, but hybrid teaching was more time consuming. The results suggest that planning educators should test and evaluate hybrid teaching for a wide range of planning courses.

The Uses of Planning Theory: A Bibliographic Essay

Friedmann, J. — 2008-12-19

There is a widespread opinion that planning theory is of little relevance to practitioners. This article tries to refute this view by showing the impact that planning theorists have had on the profession during the past 50 years. It suggests three ways that theorizing can contribute to the field, referring here to both practice and education primarily in North America. The first is by evolving a deeply considered humanist philosophy for planning and tracing its implications for practice. The second is by adapting planning practices to their real-world constraints with regard to scale, complexity, and time. The third is by translating knowledge and ideas generated in other fields into the domain of planning. The article concludes that planning theory needs to be perceived as a transdisciplinary endeavor involving a global community of scholars and that their contributions are vital to the profession.

Scaffolding Instruction in a University-level GIS Course

Carlson, T. — 2008-12-19

This article describes action research conducted in a university geographic information systems (GIS) certificate program. This research was employed with the goal of improving students' transfer of GIS/ global positioning systems (GPS) skills to field settings, independent projects, and to future employment. This scaffolded instruction was evaluated by analyzing students' work and their perceptions of the field experience using GPS with GIS. Although GIS and GPS are increasingly used in concert by planners, little instructional research into the integration of these technologies in university urban studies or planning curricula has taken place. The evaluation of the active scaffolded learning field exercise showed that the urban studies and planning students demonstrated mastery and transfer of field-based GIS and GPS data collection and management. The evaluation supports a scaffolded instruction approach in a GIS curriculum, one that engages students and results in positive learning outcomes.

2008 Chester Rapkin Award for the Best Article in Volume 27: "Coming of Age in Mississippi"

Talen, E. — 2008-12-19

2008 Jay Chatterjee Award for Distinguished Service

Stiftel, B. — 2008-12-19

2008 Margarita McCoy Award

Spain, D. — 2008-12-19

Review: Global Universities and Urban Development: Case Studies and Analysis, edited by Wim Wiewel and David C. Perry. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. 2008. 360 pages. $39.95 (paperback)

Dalton, L. C. — 2008-12-19

Review: Recapturing Democracy--Neoliberalization and the Struggle for Alternative Urban Futures, by Mark Purcell. New York and London: Routledge. 2008. 208 pages. $31.95 (paperback)

Boelens, L. — 2008-12-19

Review: Implementation of Environmental Policies in Developing Countries: A Case of Protected Areas and Tourism in Brazil, by Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira. Albany: State University of New York Press. 2008. 133 pages. $50.00 (hardcover)

Browder, J. O. — 2008-12-19

Review: Governing Cities in a Global Era: Urban Innovation, Competition, and Democratic Reform, edited by Robin Hambleton and Jill Simone Gross. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2007. 292 pages. $29.95 (paperback)

Teune, H. — 2008-12-19