Mariana NAE, Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, Romania
Liliana DUMITRACHE, Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, Romania
The new development of Bucharest City after 1989 has had to meet the requirements of spatial planning and to cope with the challenges of political and economic restructuring. In this context, the adoption of new neoliberal urban policies has significantly changed the logic of urban planning but has also led to environmental conflicts arising from abusive land - use. The importance and role of public and private actors in urban planning and development have changed, private actors becoming initiators of urban residential projects that often disagreed with the norms and particularities of urban neighbourhoods.
Some private investment projects mostly focused either on the construction of high-rise buildings in protected areas or on small-scale residential buildings built in densified areas. Both cases have gradually become the focus of civic action groups or have been the subject of spontaneous protests. Semi-structured and open-ended interviews with both experts in the field and representatives of NGOs in terms of urban law issues, the forms of organizing of civic groups, the strategies applied in awareness-raising in the preservation of the neighbourhood, and environmental legislation were applied. Using a qualitative approach (frame analysis and discourse analysis), we explored social interactions and power relations between structures and practices concerning the civic engagement in spatial planning.
The struggle for urban sustainable development has often opposed the partisans of preserving the old city and those who are keen on new developments, those who have supported the renovation of the city centre versus those who have developed dwellings in the urban fringe, between activists who support compliance with planning rules and the promoters of the urban derogations. Civic initiatives are diverse in forms and manifestations and could be a key in regional development and governance of local activities.
Mots clés : civic engagement|public interest|spatial meanings|participatory planning|Bucharest, Romania
A104337MN