Environments by Design

Abstract

Amidst dramatic ecological, geo-political, and socio-cultural transformations in contemporary cities, scholars from a wide array of disciplines (e.g., human geography, urban studies, urban planning, architecture, and sociology) are reconsidering the methods, vocabularies, and approaches to draw on when studying socio-spatial relations in present-day urban settings.

Attending to recent calls within the planning literature to draw on affect-based research to attend to recent urban transformations, this paper addresses methodological queries that have recently occupied nonrepresentational scholars while focusing on their application in and potential for urban planning. Drawing on three empirical case studies in which the affect-based approach was utilized in planning research (a study of the new residential experience in high-rise projects, and two studies of an international airport planning process and outcomes), this research reconsiders the knowledge that can be produced in planning research and practice by engaging with affects. 

It is suggested that drawing on nonrepresentational methods, innovative understandings and inclusive insights in regards with the urban arena, the relations between humans, more-than-humans, and the elements constituting it, and the ways in which different actors understand, engage and act within it are surfaced. The research advances the development of a solid affect-based framework in urban studies and planning by contributing refined tools and methods to draw upon when examining socio-spatial relations in present-day cities.