Enjoyable life

Planning, amenity and the contested terrain of urban biopolitics

Bibliographic Data

ID4476243
AuthorsTed Rutland (0000-0001-8735-2751, Concordia University, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume33
Issue5
Pages850-868
Publication date2015-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0263775815599312
OpenAlexW2278863307
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited40

This article explores the connections between urban planning and a particular form of biopolitics. These connections are investigated by looking at the emergence of "enjoyment" as a planning concern in late 1960s Halifax, Nova Scotia. This new concern, the article suggests, emerged as a result of a political struggle involving activist groups, a newly formed state agency, and elements of the post-World War II political establishment. Wedded to this concern were two essential planning policies: the promotion of "amenity" (especially in the downtown) and the introduction of structured "citizen involvement" in planning decisions. Together, these two policies inaugurated a new form of planning and biopolitics. The promotion of amenity aimed to create a more enjoyable life through the alteration of prevailing conditions of life, while citizen involvement routed planning decisions - including the precise meaning of amenity - through "liberal" practices of government. Most importantly, the new policies were shaped by the enactment of normative divisions within the population, a characteristically biopolitical effect. The result of these divisions was a highly unequal process of citizen involvement and a correspondingly uneven terrain of enjoyment: a terrain whose development and use would provide enjoyment for "normative" populations, while leaving "pathological" populations unaffected or worse

Agency (philosophy · Amenity · Biopower · Geography · Normative · Political science · Politics · Population · Social science · Sociology · Urban planning · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Public Administration · Urban Planning and Governance

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