Of Property in Planning: Historical Transformations and Contemporary Practices - City Debates 2014 (AUB Beirut)
▻http://www.aub.edu.lb/fea/citydebates/Pages/2014/index.html
City Debates 2014 investigates how contemporary critical discourses on property can inform the way planners and designers approach the natural and built environments, particularly in relation to notions of the public good and/or the commons. By engaging with scholars and practitioners in the field, the hope is to push the practice of planning beyond limited understandings of private ownership, which prioritizes individual property and real estate value, and raise awareness about other ways of seeing, living, and relating to the natural and built landscapes. This will entail critical investigations of contemporary planning projects, such as informal settlement regularization, urban renewal, or post-war reconstruction. Conference panels will also investigate historical transformations in the conceptualization of property, particularly in the Middle-East, as well as strategies to strengthen the public, communal, and shared values of the natural and built landscapes through innovative forms of property holding as well as through taxation systems.