Maladaptive Planning and the Pro-Innovation Bias: Considering the Case of Automated Vehicles
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Centre for Research on Territory, Transports and Environment, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
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Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University and Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 3, 6708PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
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Department of Civil Engineering, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Inndalveien 28, 5063 Bergen, Norway
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School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Urban Sci. 2020, 4(3), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci4030041
Received: 4 August 2020
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Revised: 26 August 2020
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Accepted: 27 August 2020
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Published: 1 September 2020
This article argues that a more critical approach to innovation policy within planning is needed and offers recommendations for achieving this. These recommendations entail rethinking the values, focus, speed, and legitimacy of innovations. It takes a critical perspective on how contemporary societies treat rapid innovation as having necessarily positive results in the achievement of objectives such as sustainability and justice. This critical perspective is needed because innovation can both contribute to and drive a form of maladaptive planning: a collective approach to reality that imposes constant and rapid changes to societal configurations due to an obsession with the new and with too little rapport with the problems in place or that it creates. A maladaptive direction for transport planning is used as a sectorial illustration of the broader conceptual ideas presented: for both sustainability and social justice reasons, it would be desirable to see peak car occurring. However, the car industry is presenting driving automation as an innovation with the potential to restore the vitality of the private vehicles market while creating effective means to dismiss alternatives to car dominance.
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Keywords:
innovation; responsibility; evolution; maladaptation; contrived change; automated mobility; automated vehicles
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MDPI and ACS Style
Ferreira, A.; von Schönfeld, K.C.; Tan, W.; Papa, E. Maladaptive Planning and the Pro-Innovation Bias: Considering the Case of Automated Vehicles. Urban Sci. 2020, 4, 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci4030041
AMA Style
Ferreira A, von Schönfeld KC, Tan W, Papa E. Maladaptive Planning and the Pro-Innovation Bias: Considering the Case of Automated Vehicles. Urban Science. 2020; 4(3):41. https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci4030041
Chicago/Turabian StyleFerreira, António, Kim C. von Schönfeld, Wendy Tan, and Enrica Papa. 2020. "Maladaptive Planning and the Pro-Innovation Bias: Considering the Case of Automated Vehicles" Urban Science 4, no. 3: 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci4030041
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