Hou, Ying-Chun (Nancy); (2024) ‘Community-led’ urban planning reform under a developmental-state planning system? - a study of Taipei, Taiwan. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This study contributes to an understanding of community-led governance and planning reform through a contextualised analysis of recent initiatives in Taiwan. Community-led planning practice, which emphasises participation, partnership, and consensus-building, has become important as it symbolises the democratisation of planning systems. However, current writings on community engagement are mostly generalised from the experiences of western democratic countries and have paid insufficient attention to East Asian contexts, and those countries which have pursued modernisation programmes for decades. To address this gap, this study explores recent planning reforms in Taipei, which have reshaped particular constructions of community as both a critical policy subject and object in urban policy reform. Communities in the reforming process are given powers and resources, with multiple objectives to increase the efficiency of urban regeneration and levels of democratic participation. This research investigates the diverse rationalities for community construction, how community constructions are embedded into the planning system, and what the impacts of this planning reform have been for communities. It uses Scott (1998) as a framework by which to understand how the developmental state of Taiwan has shifted into the democratic era with an increasingly neoliberal and financialised planning system, and how this shift has impacted communities and governance structures. To generate in-depth evidence, the research uses a qualitative methodology and compares and contrasts two community-led planning model cases: the Nanjichang and Nangang community regeneration projects. Three findings are presented: 1. Government planners see informal places as new development territories for growing governing crises resulting from housing and economic problems. 2. Policymakers formalise the informalities through market-driven instruments in particular financialisation planning models. 3. There are policy gaps among policymaking and planning practices, which results in serious community resistance on the ground. Overall, the research argues that ‘what government planners see contrasts with what developers and communities see’ and that market-oriented planning reforms may further marginalise already excluded communities.

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