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[Ed: I asked John Minnery to describe the program with which he is associated -- the School of Design and the Built Environment at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia -- which is also described in a formal Web page, at http://www.dbe.bee.qut.edu.au/about/ . I appreciate his offering these thoughtful insights on the evolution of the School and of his own teaching style.] Wendy Plotkin asked me to explain a little about the 'Design and Built Environment' name of our School used in a previous message I sent. I'm happy to do that, although it's not as exotic as might be imagined. I'm also using this as an opportunity to request help for a research theme I'm pursuing on historical urban governance. The current School came about because of a forced merger between two previous Schools. The Queensland University of Technology, like all other Australian (and world?) universities has an obsession with 'bigger is better'. In this case there were some advantages to be gained from potential cross-disciplinary work from the merger. There were also some costs. But now the School houses the disciplines/professions of urban and regional planning, landscape architecture, land surveying, urban design (previously all in one School), and architecture, interior design and industrial design (previously in another School). What could such a School be called? The design-based professions insisted on the word 'design' being included. Those of us who were interested in things outside design (including policy) struggled to find an acceptable term. Because the School is within a Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering, then 'built environment' was added to the School's name to capture the contribution of professions that were only partly design-oriented. Thus, the School of Design and Built Environment. This means that the history class I am involved in is called 'History of the Built Environment' and includes urban planning students and landscape architecture students. I share the teaching with a landscape architect. The other professions in the school have their own history classes. This shared teaching has been a really interesting experience. Although my contribution is supposedly focused more on urban planning I find I am teaching more about the social, cultural, political, economic and philosophical background to periods rather than specifically city design or city planning. But also, like many other teachers of the history of a profession in Australia, I am struggling to find good ways of redirecting historical understanding away from its European base (where it traditionally lay) towards the inclusion of other histories, especially those in Asia and South East Asia. The question I have is about historical urban governance. I use the term 'governance' as something quite distinct from 'government' or the act of governing. 'Urban governance' is used to include the relationships amongst government, the private sector and the community (or state, market, and civil society; or various other triads of terms) in the direction and administration of urban areas. The power of globalisation, the down-sizing of the public sector, the development of public-private partnerships, the decline of the nation-state, growing demands for community participation, and many similar international and local forces are changing these relationships. My hypothesis is that parallels to some of these forces can be found in historical cities. And that because of this there are lessons for today to be derived from a better understanding of historical urban governance. Clearly the parallels are not exact and pushing the similarities too far would become ridiculous. But, for example, one could ask, 'As the role of nation-states declines, what could be learned from the public/market/civic relationships in cities before the rise of the nation-state?' Or, 'Given the changing nature of capitalist enterprise, what were the public/market/civic relationships before modern capitalism?' And so on. One interesting example of someone who has speculated about something similar is Stephen J Kobrin (1999) in 'Back to the future: Neomedievalism and the postmodern digital world economy' in A. Prakash and J. Hart's _Globalization and Governance_ (London, Routledge). So my question is whether there are others who have also pursued this line, and if there are useful additional references I can be pointed towards. I'm happy to share any responses with the list. Regards, John Minnery Dr John Minnery, Senior Lecturer, Urban and Regional Planning, School of Design and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology [Ed: Included in Aseem Prakash and Jeffrey A. Hart's _Globalization and Governance: An Introduction_ is: PART I: The concepts and politics of globalization and governance: 1. Global governance: a relational contracting approach, D.A. Lake; 2. Rent-seeking, redistribution, and reform in the governance of global markets, M.D. McGinnis; 3. Globalization and the evolution of rules, W. Sandholtz; 4. Social constructivism and the evolution of multilateral environmental governance, P.M. Haas; 5. Globalization as governance: toward an archealogy of contemporary political reason, I.R. Douglas. PART II: Impact of globalization on the Westphalian State: 6. Back to the future: neomedievalism and the post-modern digital world economy, S.J. Kobrin; 7. Globalization, governance, and complexity, P.G. Cerny; 8. Market globalization and the future policies of the industrial states, R.T. Kudrle. PART III: New institution and new policies; 9.Globalization, governance, and strategic trade and investment policies, Hart J.A. & Prakah A.; 10. Administrative law for a new century, A.C. Aman Jr., 11. Governance of the EU in the twenty-first century, M. Fratianni; Globalization and governance: conclusion, Hart J. & Prakash A. ] Wendy Plotkin, Ph.D. Urban Information Specialist Local Community Fact Book 2000 University of Illinois at Chicago Richard J. Daley (Main) Library (M/C 234) Government Documents-Rm. 3-180 801 S. Morgan St. Chicago, Illinois 60607 **************************************** Phone: (312) 413-2596 Phone (Main Desk) (312) 996-2738 Fax: (312) 413-0424 E-Mail: wplotk1@uic.edu
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