Confronting a Fractured Public Interest

What are the planners’ roles and responsibilities in addressing issues of race and ethnicity?

All groups in the United States cities believe that the current system of government is capable of achieving fair outcomes and that political representation represents the interests of the minority (Bollens, 2002). It is still feasible to form coalitions that can defuse and reduce intergroup violence among ethnic groups, but this is not the reality of fractured cities. At least one ethnic community perceives governance in polarized cities as either illegitimate or inherently incapable of achieving fair societal outcomes for subjugated ethnic groups (Bollens, 2002).

In polarized cities, ethnocultural and territorial components of conflict predominate over socioeconomic dimensions, and urban planners must grapple with both broader ideological conflict and specific planning difficulties of daily urban life. The reality of a planner, whether in a liberal or polarized state, is that they must deal with the manifestation of supra-urban forces, as well as manage and deal with the causalities of disputes. These dynamics have historically been centered in polarized cities on competing political claims encompassing ideology, ethnicity, and nationalism. (Bollens, 2002).

Multiculturalism today poses more fundamental challenges to planning than criticism did in the 1960s and 1970s. Multiculturalism presents significant challenges in terms of planning and city building, such as the ethnic character of urban design amidst neighborhood change, regulation of ethnic business and commercial enclaves, housing occupancy standards and cultural differences, and multilingual signage (Qadeer, 1997). Multicultural planning entails a heightened awareness of the use and perception of urban space, including concerns of residential segregation and public park use.

This emphasizes the importance of evaluating the effects of proposed policies on identified sections of the community. If religious groups and planners work together well, they can have a positive impact on spaces and society. The creation of the Birmingham Central Mosque is a wonderful example of this. The Muslim organization leader collaborated closely with local planners to ensure that the location was of the highest use value to the people and served the city as one of its most significant landmarks (Gale, 2004).

Planning instructors and researchers must also address concerns of cultural diversity openly. The Planning Accreditation Board (2001) demands that the city's "multicultural and gender dimensions" be taught, as well as "respect for diversity of views and ideologies" to be instilled during planning studies. According to Friedmann and Kuester (1994), the capacity to plan in a multicultural environment is an important talent for planners. Cultural divergence and transformation "remains a relatively understudied process in urban planning" (Friedmann, 1996).

Many planners have used Secularity to tackle an ethnically or racially split public interest, which is considered to be a professional coping strategy that detach them from the main difficulties. According to Baum (1999), planners frequently regard themselves as impartial, objective, scientific observers who are outside of society, have no prejudices, and make evaluations using universal norms, when dealing with challenges involving significant value conflict.

reference list

Baum, H. (1999). Culture matters—But it shouldn’t matter too much. In M. Burayidi (Ed.), Urban planning in a multicultural society (pp. 115–136). Westport, , CT: Praeger.

Bollens, S. A. (2002) Urban Planning and Intergroup Conflict: Confronting a Fractured Public Interest, Journal of the American Planning Association, 68:1, 22-42, DOI: 10.1080/01944360208977189

Gale, R. 2004. The Multicultural City and the Politics of Religious Architecture: Urban Planning, Mosques and Meaning making in Birmingham, UK. Alexandrine, 30 (1), 30-44

Friedmann, J. (1996). The core curriculum in planning revisited. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 15(2), 89– 104

Friedmann, J., & Kuester, C. (1994). Planning education for the late twentieth century: An initial inquiry. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 14(1), 55–64