Planning with power. A theory-informed discussion of the distributional effects of urban densification

This article contributes to the debate on power in planning and provides a conceptual framework uncovering the effects of power in real-life planning situations. It bridges planning, neoinstitutionalism and power to appraise contested urban redevelopments such as they take place under densification. This article asks: (1) Which power structures are at work in urban development processes and what forms do their involvement in the planning process take? (2) How does the identification of power structures help explaining why the social dimension of sustainability is recurrently being neglected in densification processes? (3) What does their identification mean for planning as a practice and as a discipline?
Through its impact on the built environment and on existing property rights and interests, densification creates not only winners, but also losers, especially among those inhabitants who cannot afford the higher rents following redevelopments in favor of density. Due to its conflictual nature, densification is therefore an ideal subject to study power in planning. In this article, planning is appraised as a public policy regulating the use of land and land-related resources such as housing. Four situations of power exercise can be identified in this process of regulation. Their conceptual characterization constitutes the first part of the article. The second part illustrates how the proposed framework can usefully be put to work in the analysis of a densification project in Zurich, Switzerland.