RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research program

Sociological analysis for architectural and urban design: general problems and application issues

University Co-ordinator

Università degli Studi di SASSARI - ECONOMIA, ISTITUZIONI E SOCIETA' - SASSARI(SS)

Research Unit Leader

Antonietta MAZZETTE

Description

The objective of the programme of the research unit of the University of Sassari is to elaborate on a theoretical and methodological contribution to the consideration of the architectural and urban design that appreciates the complexity of the social phenomena involved and that makes available an adapted conceptual apparatus and a set of instruments and techniques for the use of information according to a participatory approach in sustainable planning.

The research assumes as its central object the relationship that is established in the different stages of urban design, with particular reference to the living functions of areas, between informative streams that constitute the cognitive base of the project and the forms of participation that arise from the assumption of its sustainability. The primary objective will be therefore to devise an informative-participation model that places the social processes of the context of intervention in the same stages of planning, or rather, for other ways, as a necessary assumption in the decisions of planning.
Given the object and the objectives, the study will be primarily of a theory-methodology nature.

Contents
The activity of the research team will concentrate on the reconstruction and analysis of the different contexts of territorial planning differentiated by morphological, historical and regulatory character in order to identify the techniques and the organisation of the informative and participation processes through which knowledge and plans are transformed into concrete action.

Within the methodological profile the modalities through which the informative system is structured have to be studied on more levels, each of which presents its own peculiarities and affects differently the quality of the design and the forms of participation in the decision-making process: 1) a system of statistical information and its organisation on the different territorial level and in different thematic areas; 2) the techniques of observation and qualitative approaches; 3) sample surveys, in particular those on panel.
On the theoretical level some key concepts at the base of which an informative and participation model adapted to the government of the city can be constructed will be the object of discussion. In the first stages of research this effort to precisely define the concepts will be structured like a glossary of urban planning and will have among its central points some key problems:

1. Planning. Themes of interest: the distance between planning and the actual processes of development; the vertical and horizontal complexity of the territory; the procedure of the scheme between planning and realisation, taking into consideration the bewildering times and the lack of homogeneity of the cycles (temporal dyscrasia) between project and action, feedback and in general the necessity to control the feedback (e.g. Stages and cycles of life in parts of the city in relation to the living functions and therefore the settlement-development of generations); the different levels of planning (for territorial environments, for sectors of intervention); the different phases of the plan (project, monitoring, evaluation); the times of planning and the stability of the information system.

2. Sustainability. Themes of interest: the application to the urban environment of the categories elaborated by the consideration of the environment and development and therefore of the scales and level of different complexity.

3. Quality of Life. Themes of interest: the necessity of multi-disciplinary approaches; the problem, theoretical more than methodological, of the definition of specific but comparable indications (every urban context is unique, but the QdV is a universal concept); the actual effects (e.g. real-estate value) of the use of determined criteria and quality indications.

4. Social Indicators. Themes of interest: the variables assumed as indicators are not neutral; the relationships of indication between the available variables and latent variables are always multiplying and require the discussion of the model within which they are applied, that is the relationship of indication always has a stipulate and contextual nature, its validity is never absolute or universal; the ‘covering' of some fields of interest such as living functions, consumption, security.

5. Demand analysis. Themes of interest: complexity tied to the fact that in the planning phase and in the management and operative stages the streams of information carry differentiated and often conflictual questions, assuming major or minor force or intensity according to the interests or issues in play; the allocation of resources of information and the capacity of the participation of different subjects involved are determined in the definition of the demand, not last in terms of determination of the agenda of planning.

6. Democratic participation. Themes of interest: the centres, agencies and the modality of participation are differentiated and only in part coincide with institutional ones; the forms of involvement, from simple consultation (e.g. public hearings) to the effective participation in the decision, and even less in the phases of realisation and management (e.g. according to the logic of governance), are in great evolution from both a regulatory point of view as well as a social practice viewpoint.

The investigations regarding the informative system are articulated on many levels and with different approaches. The first level is relative to the statistical information produced and made available by so called official sources. This level of consideration can be reconducted to the study ‘of social indicators' and it summons, among others, the problem of the elaboration of synthetic indexes of urban quality, fundamental in the different phases of survey, project, intervention and evaluation. To this proposal the following are taken into consideration:
a. The regulatory frame in which the statistic system is articulated, firstly on a national level, and the relationship that is established between the different subjects involved (in the Italian case we refer above all to the system anticipated by D.Lgs.322/89 institutive of Sistan).
b. The quality of available data for secondary analysis, intended as the adaptation of cognitive scopes tied to urban planning, firstly on the level of aggregation of the units and comparability (Zajczyk 1996), but also for the sensitivity with respect to gender, environmental, multicultural dimensions etc;
c. The intrinsic characteristics of the sources available and the relative indicators in terms of reliability. (Marradi 1990);
d. The practice of gathering and structuring the information on different territorial and thematic levels, that are assumed for cognitive scopes which are above all administrative.
e. The possibility to organise territorial data in order to subject it to treatment by GIS (Geographical Information System) and therefore the ability to interface official databases with a sole scheme of territorial partition (e.g. The section of census).

A second level is that of the "qualitative" techniques of the observation of the urban environment, through which to acquire knowledge and to prefigure scenarios of change.
f. The observation of morphological character (architectural, urbanistic, social, and anthropological) of the different urban contexts through direct observation, (natural or participant) and through ethnographic research.
g. Reconstruction of the history and state of the urban environment through the examination of documents (archives, maps, etc.);
h. Other techniques that foresee the involvement of experts and/or natives according to more or lesser intense forms of participation: Delphi method, community studies, action research, etc.

A third level concerns research that can be indexed as "surveys", such as the gathering of primary data obtained through standardised interviews.
i. Ad hoc studies of single planning processes or interventions.
j. Longitudinal empirical studies, more or less large in extension, that constitute a relevant base for secondary analysis (eg. European panel, Istat's multi-scope investigations on the family, etc.)

Methodological reflection is the starting point and the trait d'union between the problems of information and participation in decisions on urban planning. In fact, in many cases the practices adopted for the cognition of the territory appears as a border between research, plan and intervention. This is because, whatever the technique considered, the quality of the information and its allocation between the parties involved in the project (or vice versa the position of different subjects regarding informative streams) depends on the degree and method of involvement of those in the cognitive process. It is even truer if we refer to the gathering of territorial information that anticipates a strong component of communication and participation. This is the case, in the procedural field of the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) of approaches such as EASW (European Awareness Scenario Workshop) in which information, communication, creation of consensus and decision are presented as inseparable dimensions of a sole social process tied to territorial intervention. But it is worth even more for the national statistics system, if we consider the network of relations (mutual obligations) that is established between the different subjects involved, both in the stage of collection and in the phase of the use of data.

Regarding the social capital dimension, the cognitive objective that we propose to reach is to investigate, through already active research, the different conceptual approaches, the methodological instruments of investigating civic sense and the negative behavioural consequences determined by it, such as for example deviance, and finally to evaluate the more valid preventative instruments that could contribute to an adapted urban planning, foreseeing the creation of contexts or structures

The second point to investigate is the concept of social development, intended as civic commitment, together with processes aimed at the creation of areas of social citizenship, an action to improve not only the territorial context and the conditions of material life but above all social conditions, for example, making use of social and, by consequence, relational resources.

Consequently, by reinforcing public spirit it has a positive influence on the wellbeing of a determined context where the forms of unrest result as direct consequences of the total lack or deprivation of wellbeing.

For this reason the planning for the consolidation of social capital, activating social networks, (above all in the most at-risk contexts), must become a determining aspect in urban planning, in order that it sets it self the objective of a design plan that pursues a permanent state of wellbeing.

Another object for reflection is empowerment, intended as a process in acquiring personal power, the capacity to positively affect one's own destiny, coping with the difficulties faced everyday. One of the objectives that a community must try to reach in order to prevent deviancy is relative to the promotion of empowerment through development programs, anticipating situations of "disempowerment" in which problematic behavioural styles can arise.

The last aspect to investigate within this project is connected to the relationship between civic sense and moral disengagement. Our behaviour is often characterised by a non-committal that forces us to adopt justifications that precisely obey psychological mechanisms that favour self-absolution and therefore avoiding the sense of guilt, remorse, shame etc. (Caprara, 2000) The study of the modalities of the realisation of moral disengagement can be remarkably interesting from a preventative point of view; for example Thomas Gabor (1994) investigated the pervasion of the mechanisms of moral disengagement in a daily context and their relative consequences.

Stages
The activity of the Sassari unit will be structured according to a scheme that predicts the elaboration and clarification of a conceptual homogenous base and the construction of methodological instruments, involving in the following ways the different competence and scientific-disciplinary specificity.

First Year
1. Acknowledgement of theoretical and methodological literature in the different disciplinary environments connected to territorial planning and the government of the city, aimed at focusing on the points of contact and the distance between the knowledge involved in the process.
2. Collection and critical analysis of the regulations, at national, European and international level aimed at highlighting the bonds through which planning can happen in a informative-participation dimension.
3.Comparison of documented experiences of planning in urban areas, on the basis of the respective modalities practised in terms of information-participation.

Second year
Elaboration of a instrument conceived as a critical manual of sustainable planning that foresees the synthetic definition of concepts-guides (glossary) and the construction of an informative- participation model spendable for planning.

The structure of the instrument will develop around three fundamental areas, regarding, respectively:
1. Informative sources, that is "who produces it and how it is produced";
2. The indicators, that is "information about what";
3. The participation practises, that is "who uses and how information is used".

The expected stages don't constitute a linear succession of activity rigidly ordered by time but in case they form a spiral process that, maintaining the construction of the model as the principal objective, requires cyclical postponement of the different phases for successive investigation and for the constant redefinition of theoretical and methodological problems.