Spatial planning pre-glossary scouting

In May 2009, during an interesting but for me hectic conference that took place in Oporto (Portugal), once again I noticed how difficult is the communication among planners, not only for the different academic backgrounds, but also because of the country-specific planning culture people come from. Both facts strongly affect the (supposed) meaning, interpretation and usage of some key-words and key-expressions, with the not rare consequence of generating something like a “loquacious dialogue among deaf people”.

Sooner or later it would be useful to write down some sort of a glossary, just for “normalizing” (as to say: proving some generally accepted norms) the chaotic situation.

The goal of this page is not to write a glossary, but it aims at taking advantage of internet communication tools for a preliminary analysis of how planners currently use some of the most important (and mostly abused, not to say misused) technical words in our promiscuous “scientific environment”, for understanding how the potential glossary could be and what it should focus on.

Herewith I enclose just a short list of words and expressions, some others are potential confrontations, asking you to add others you already experienced interpretation problems with, and reckon it would be useful to discuss. Then, please, give your personal explanation, possibly going into the detailed mechanisms (etymologically or experienced based) that according to you gives one specific meaning and not another meaning to them, always trying to provide some examples.

Thanks a lot for contributing to the creation of a common planning language!

Fabrizio


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Pre-glossary scouting
Please, give your interpretation of the following words or expressions,
add yours and when explaining always try to provide some examples!

Absolute/Objective/General vs Relative/Subjective/Localized

Accessibility:

Anthropological vs Sociological:

Architectural vs Artistic:

Area (geography?) vs Zone (geography? architecture? planning?):

Bibliographic review:

Cause vs Effect:

Centrality (urban):

Citizens:

City/Town:

Coherent vs Useful:

Compact vs Dense:

Complex vs Complicated:

Consensus building vs Participation:

Design (urban interventions):

Design (policy making):

District vs Estate/Pole (industrial):

Economic vs Financial:

Empirical research:

Evolution vs Growth (urban):

Form/shape vs Structure (urban):

Infrastructure:

Integration vs Interaction (processes):

Interview (qualitative vs quantitative?):

Land-use:

Macro-sociological vs Micro-sociological:

Management (within urban planning):

Mathematical vs Rational(e):

Metabolism (urban):

Method:

Methodology:

Metropolitan area:

Metropolitan region:

Mobility (urban):

Model (projecting):

Model (socio-economic analysis):

Mono-centric (provide examples):

Multi-centric (provide examples):

Paradigm:

Planner (urban):

Plan/Planning (spatial):

Policy vs Politics:

Policy making:

Poly-centric (provide examples):

“Predict & provide” vs other forecasts (like weather forecast) [this is not a joke!]:

Pro-active vs Re-active:

Process (planning) – (please provide detailed examples):

Programs (within urban planning):

Projecting:

Qualitative (provide examples):

Quantitative (provide examples):

Questionnaires (types):

Regeneration (urban):

Rehabilitation (urban):

Resilience (?):

Revitalization (urban):

Sample (statistic):

Science/scientific/scientist:

Scouting:

Space vs Time:

Spatial:

Stakeholders:

Strategy (planning):

Sustainable vs Affordable:

System:

Technique/technical/technician:

Territory:

Tool (instrument) vs Goal (objective):

Type:

Typology:

Zoning: