Critical Planning: UCLA Urban Planning Journal,

Published Since: 1993

Critical Planning is the graduate student-run journal of the UCLA Urban Planning Department, producing one volume annually. Since 1993, Critical Planning has served as a forum for the urban studies and planning communities to debate current issues, showcase emerging research, and propose new ideas concerning cities and regions. The journal attracts submissions from scholars, graduate students, and practitioners from across disciplinary boundaries and from around the world. Through our double-blind peer-review process, Critical Planning is committed to identifying and publishing insightful scholarly research with a critical approach. As one of the cores of intellectual life in the Urban Planning Department, the journal provides a convivial space for rigorous debate. Our public programs—including lectures, exhibitions, film screenings, and symposia—extend this work to audiences in Los Angeles and beyond. Critical Planning reaches an international subscriber base of urban planning scholars, students, practitioners, libraries, bookstores, and enthusiasts.

Call for Papers

"Resilience": Critical Planning: UCLA Urban Planning Journal, Volume 17, Summer 2010

Deadline: January 15, 2010
(Download pdf)

Knowledge of the system we deal with is always incomplete. Surprise is inevitable. Not only is the science incomplete, the system itself is a moving target.
– C. S. Holling (1993)

Recent macro-economic crises, from the American subprime mortgage collapse to the global financial meltdown, together with projected ecological catastrophes, from climate change to the post-peak oil production decline, have all raised a crucial question: how might urban systems accommodate future “shocks,” “crises,” “disasters,” and “emergencies” in whatever (un)expected forms they might take?

Derived from ecology, the concept of resilience is defined as the “measure of the persistence of systems and of their ability to absorb change and disturbance and still maintain the same relationships between populations or state variables” (Holling 1973). A resilient system is formed by the dynamic interplay between deterministic forces and random events, structural factors and human agency, linear paths and contingency. Such heterogeneity and variability allow resilient systems to absorb unforeseen shocks, continually adapting and evolving so as to resist collapse.

As the earth’s population approaches seven billion—and becomes increasingly urbanized, globalized, and interconnected—our collective vulnerability to large-scale shocks also multiplies, demanding more sophisticated, critical approaches in theory and practice. Sprawling natural/ecological and human/social systems grow intricately intertwined as well as ever more precarious. How then might the concept of resilience inform urban research on the ground? How might urban planning scholars, practitioners, and policymakers integrate a perspective that presupposes uncertainty, heterogeneity, and collective entanglement?

For its 17th volume, Critical Planning invites articles that explore the question of resilience empirically, theoretically, and historically in specific urban contexts around the world. We welcome papers and creative projects that investigate resilience in relation to: theoretical problems (sustainability, development, scale, diversity); ongoing environmental/ecological concerns (climate change, dwindling natural resources); the changing urban built environment (sprawl, the rural/urban interface); unfolding civil conflict and struggle (urban social movements); movements of people (migration and refugee flows); evolving socioeconomic regimes (neoliberalism, market socialism); and the interplay of political ideologies and collective imaginaries, among other topics.

References

Holling, C. S. 1973. Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Laxenburg, Austria: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
Perrings, Charles. 2006. Resilience and sustainable development. Environment and Development Economics. 11 (4): 417-427.
Scoones, I. 1999. New ecology and the social sciences: What prospects for a fruitful engagement? Annual Review of Anthropology. 28: 479-507.

Critical Planning is a double-blind peer-reviewed publication. Feature articles are generally between 5,000 and 7,000 words, while shorter articles are between 1,000 and 3,000 words. We encourage submissions that incorporate cross-disciplinary, multi-scalar, multi-sited, transnational, and/or mixed-method approaches. We also welcome submissions of photographs, maps, art, or design projects related to the topic of resilience for publication in the journal.

The 2010 Edward W. Soja Prize for Critical Thinking in Urban and Regional Research will be awarded to the best article published in Critical Planning volume 17. The prize celebrates the lifetime achievements of this critical thinker whose work continues to open new research directions for the theoretical and practical understanding of contemporary cities and regions. For the prize, we will consider all articles selected for publication through Critical Planning’s double-blind peer review process. Preference will be given to authors speaking to critical issues outside the research agendas of traditional funding agencies and institutional donors. A $1,000 prize will be awarded to the author of the winning article.

Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis, and we highly encourage early submissions. Feel free to contact us by email to discuss your ideas. All submissions should be written according to the standards of the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition. Please follow the journal’s additional style guidelines for submissions. Manuscripts should be submitted by 5 PM PST on January 15, 2010 as .doc attachments via email to critplan@ucla.edu and two hardcopies (postmarked by January 15) mailed to:

Critical Planning
c/o Orly Linovski, Managing Editor
UCLA Department of Urban Planning
School of Public Affairs
3250 Public Policy Building
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656
USA

Staff

Managing Editor
Orly Linovski

Editorial Board
Imge Akcakaya
Jonathan Bell
Jenny Goldstein
Yogi Hendlin
Nicholas Lustig
Deirdre Pfeiffer
Tristan Sturm
Elise Youn

Editorial Coordinator
Chandini Singh

Design Editor
Morgan Chee

Development Manager
Ava Bromberg

Summer Office Manager
Fallon James

Resources

ISSN (Print): 1522-9807

Website: http://www.criticalplanning.org

Contact

Critical Planning
UCLA Department of Urban Planning, School of Public Affairs
3250 Public Policy Building, Box 951656
Los Angeles , CA 90095-1656