Performative planning at the urban scale

Sustainable urban transformations are needed that radically challenges and changes the urban structures of our society towards more sustainable development. This paper argues that in order to realize sustainable urban transformations in practice new forms of strategic planning are needed at the urban scale, since current planning practices tend to reproduce existing structures in society, rather than transforming these and develop new green urban assemblages. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how performative forms of strategic planning are able to challenge and transform existing urban structures as a means to implement sustainable development in practice. These performative forms of strategic planning are inspired by Actor Network Theory, which challenges the way associations are traced by not a priori assuming any fixity to social aggregations. By applying this theoretical perspective, the paper shows that current planning practices tends to act as intermediaries that simply reproduce existing urban structures, whereas performative forms of strategic planning show potential for planning to act as a mediator that challenges and transforms. These points are illustrated through a case study of strategic planning in Denmark, where sustainable urban transformation was addressed through a more performative approach. In the discussion, the potentials of this more performative approach to strategic planning to promote sustainable urban transformations is highlighted, although it is also argued that it represents a difficult and risky business for the planners. In conclusion, the paper points towards ways to promote more performative forms in strategic planning in order to implement sustainable transformations of urban structures.