Queen Jane Jacobs and paradigm shifts in urban planning and urban redevelopment

Hamburg
All participants will receive abstracts of allpresentations and CVs. Coffee, tea and wateron both days in the morning and in the afternoonare included in the fee of 60 € and 30 €for students.As there are only about 60 places for participantsthe number is limited and registration will bemade on first come first registered basis.

In 1961 Jane Jacobs’s famous book “Death and Life of Great American Cities” was published. It begins, “Thisbook is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding (…) It is an attack, rather, on the principles andaims that have shaped modern, orthodox city planning”. With this radical approach Jane Jacobs challengedthe discipline of urban planning. In 2011 we will celebrate this famous book’s 50th anniversary. Ever sinceher first book was published there has been discussion on whether she should be called “urban hero” or“trouble maker”. Other publications variously refer to her as “Queen Jane”, an “urban visionary“, “anti planner”or even “urban guru”.

The myth that grew around her was based on her book as well as her work in the grassroots movementsof New York City where she (and others) fought against slum clearances and Robert Moses’ highway constructionprojects that were planned to cut through urban neighbourhoods. In 1968, as this approach tourban renewal was slowly beginning to change in New York City she and her family moved to Toronto toavoid her two sons being drafted into the Vietnam War. On her arrival in Canada she was celebrated as “ourJane” and soon accepted as the expert on urban issues and urban renewal. Jane Jacobs’s approach in all herpublications was unusual; she did not work with statistics and maps, but aimed simply to “seek the truthfrom the facts”. A recent article claimed that, “she had more enemies than any American woman”. In herlast book Jane Jacobs referred to a paradigm shift, although not to the one she had influenced. She callsplanning a “pseudoscience”, but how could a layperson like Jane Jacobs, who was not part of any scientificnetworks, develop new paradigms?

Today many theorists and practitioners are thinking about a new paradigm shift in the current period ofrapid globalisation and neoliberal as well as deregulated approaches to planning. In this context it is usefulto reflect on the background and context of paradigm shifts and their chief players and theoreticians. Thediscussions to be held during this conference will not be limited to the North American perspective. Notonly did Jane Jacobs’s ideas and influence cross the Atlantic and reach Europe, they also influenced urbanplanning and urban renewal worldwide. For this reason we want the conference to open up a transnationalas well as transdisciplinary discussion of Jane Jacobs’s work.

The conference language is English.

Make payment to:HafenCity Universität Hamburg
Bank account: 20 001 564
BLZ: 20 000 000 Deutsche Bundesbank
IBAN: DE 5 520 000 000 001 564
Swift Code: MARKDEF1200
Reference / Verwendungszweck:
Tagung „Queen Jane Jacobs“
Name of participant:

Location:Hamburgmuseum
Holstenwall 24, 20355 Hamburg
U- and S-Bahn stop “Landungsbrücken“Registration
Mail or Fax to:christina.blume@hcu-hamburg.de
dirk.schubert@hcu-hamburg.de
HafenCity University Hamburg
Winterhuder Weg 29
D-22085 Hamburgfon +49 40 428 27 - 45 13
fax +49 40 428 27 - 45 16