- New keywords, new topics, new models: ¿New cities?   375 kb by    Rodera, Andrea & null, null & null, null | andrearodera@hotmail.com    Short Outline YOUNGERS PLANNERS PROGRAME. 2.001 ISOCARP CONGRESS. Netherlands, 12, 13, 14 y 15 September 2.001. New keywords, new topics, new models: ¿New cities? Abstrac. Arquitecta Andrea Rodera. Centro Universitario Rosario de Investigaciones Urbanas y Regionales. Facultad de Arquitectura Planeamiento y Diseño. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Argentina. New keywords, as was reflected in the invitation to the congress, have gained ground in the discipline and have become part of the everyday vocabulary of the planner. This, which is reflected mainly in the thematic terms of planning research, in papers and in congresses, has in turn led to a certain predisposition on the part of those who are involved in the study of urban issues towards an analysis of these questions, above all dealing with questions considered to be innovative. Whatever the characteristics of the city under consideration, there is often a tendency to concentrate almost exclusively on these points. Hypotheses are put forward, then checked through the intelligent selection of examples that evidence the universality of the processes involved as well as the global impact of the issues dealt with. The possibility of a common denominator then appears shedding light on the changes undergone by each and every one of the cities that make up this great system. These theoretical products spread rapidly and have a great influence on planning work and on the work of the city planner or planners of other areas where planning is very often different. The outlining of these new concepts create a disciplinary perspective from where current city and planning reality may be visualised. From this perspective, it would appear that it is the 'technological' changes and their spatial implications that are posing the questions for the planner with regard to the city and the possibilities and approaches to town planning. These questions refer mainly to the detection of changes as such as well as to the definition of new models for interpreting and executing town planning. However, do these new keywords refer to processes applicable to any city, any region, or any country? Do these new topics explain the current situation of land? Can these questions that are seen as global be considered as transferable to news models of interpreting reality? Have new cities been created? Without neglecting this fresh approach to urban problems, and remaining sensitive to this issue, the work presented here stems from an awareness that all the processes that are currently in the spotlight are closely linked to others that are still very much present in city and regional planning. Some of these may today seem to be somewhat 'removed' from the mainstream of interest and from the innovative approach to debates on urban planning or at least that which is able to transcend the boundaries of a merely local consideration. Any theories related to these processes should be seen as critical tools rather than goals in themselves. In relation to this, a review of the experiences and visions gained mainly over the past century reveals how many of the studies that were initially presented as innovative in fact emerged as a continuation of others that came about as a result of a reflection of other times. It is in this sense of continuity that the field of planning aims to establish itself as a discipline and maintain a line of research. In other words, the aim is to focus efforts on the study of planning and on the individual city rather than on the creation of single models of interpretation. This study reflects part of the work carried out on the metropolitan area of the city of Rosario, Argentina, where the idea was put forward of analysing an area as a system consisting of varying entities - the cities of which it is made up -, that constantly interact and that form a whole with its own dynamics where new planning processes can be seen. Planning indicators were used to reflect the differences in the urban development existing between the various areas and through this to characterise the current individual functioning of the metropolitan system . Seen as variables that measure specific phenomena over time, these allowed us to establish the conditions, tendencies, problems and possibilities of the area, in this case urban-metropolitan. They also allowed us to go beyond the use of generic principles, reviving the meaning of the urban scale and construction of a specific experience on the planning processes and the new conditions. An indicator is a practic and concret form to expres a typical features of a phenomenon, and to measure, in general, diferente properties of this studie objet. To compare similar types of indicadors in diferente cities of the territory, is posible to define the diferent relations off the space to be plans . In these work the indicators are definited whit an initial selection of censal variables. They establish the conditions, tendences and social-economics problems, to describe a situation or a tendence. Two bigs groups are defined, one (1) for the social, health, economics, public services, and institucional variables, and the other (2) for the territorial variables. It is interesting to analyse in this Congress the validity and the chance offered by this approach, which in turn involves previously determining a methodological framework from which to maintain research and put forward some possible answers to the questions that arise from the issue of this Congress. Abstract New keywords, as was reflected in the invitation to the congress, have gained ground in the discipline and have become part of the everyday vocabulary of the planner. This, which is reflected mainly in the thematic terms of planning research, in papers and in congresses, has in turn led to a certain predisposition on the part of those who are involved in the study of urban issues towards an analysis of these questions, above all dealing with questions considered to be innovative. Keywords indicadores, urbanísticos, rosario Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2001: Honey, I Shrunk the Space   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper