Paper short abstract:

Based on an empirical study of zone based urban planning in five Western cities, this contribution reframes the zoning code as a culturally framed norm that is continuously re-assembled at different places of urban change.

Paper long abstract:

By drawing on a recent turn in urban studies that use assemblage thinking and actor-network theory (ANT) for the analysis of urban phenomena and by using empirical material from a study that compares the cultures of urban planning in Amsterdam, Lisbon, Vancouver, Vienna and Zurich, this contribution discusses zone based urban planning as an assemblage of various actors, materials, artefacts and rules that continuously negotiate specific sites and places of urban change.

Following concepts, like epistemic cultures (Knorr Cetina 1999) and regulatory cultures (Jasanoff 2005), developed in science and technology studies (STS), this contribution

uses the analytical framework of planning cultures that focuses on socio-material interactions and assemblages of actors (human and non-human ones), arenas, issues and practices. Using the cases of urban development projects in the analysed cities, this study has identified three cultures in zone based urban planning. These different planning cultures contribute to individual configurations, framings and negotiations of the zoning code that either are used as a strategic, tactical or operational tool. Within this framework the zoning code is either flexibly or universally interpreted and thus conceptualised as an overarching framework, a modular tool, a flexible rule, a design instrument or as a context dependent framework, individually negotiated at specific spots and sites of urban change.