John Erik Pløger

• Pløger, John (2023). Agonism, decision, power – The art of working unfinished. Raumforschung und Raumordnung. ISSN 0034-0111. 81(5), p. 449–460. doi: 10.14512/rur.1668. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The current debate on agonism has become fixed in an institutional approach: How can an agonistic design institutionally become a tool against forms of domination? An agonistic space needs decisions that do not silence dissensual voices with a finite decision. This paper suggests that this agonistic approach needs de-cisions or simply put, temporary decisions drawn from seeing a decision as a solution for now. A de-cision is not a no-decision, but a decision recognised as temporary. The paper proposes ‘the sketch’ as an appropriate mode for working de-cisionally and unfinished. By having a sketch and working de-cisionally, planners are able to invite agonistic positions to ongoing talks and to act progressively, adaptably, or rationally in the face of emerging circumstances and uncertainty. To work unfinished from a sketch transforms the planning process from being a matter of reaching a finite decision to a strife about how to understand the present and which temporary contours and directions to move on from. The paper as such thus deals with difficult praxis questions, for instance: How is it possible to allow dissent to inform planning praxis in praxis? How can quarrelling and working unfinished empower planning democracy?

• Sand, Anne-Lene; Førde, Anniken; Pløger, John & Poulsen, Mathias (2023). Improvisation and Planning: Engaging With Unforeseen Encounters in Urban Public Space. Urban Planning. ISSN 2183-7635. 8(4), p. 119–131. doi: 10.17645/up.v8i4.6318. Full text in Research Archive
• Pløger, John (2022). Contingency, decision, unfinished planning: let’s quarrel more! European Planning Studies. ISSN 0965-4313. 31(8), p. 1634–1650. doi: 10.1080/09654313.2022.2088229. Show summary

  Planning is politics. It is a procedural public participation and ladder of decision. Planning praxis is governmentalized through planning law and its procedures for communication and dialogue on decision-making and how to solve planning conflicts. It is a sedimented system (sectors) and vertical structured decisional system (top-down). Public planning is procedural (limited time for public dialogue and critique) and sedimented (organized forces first, next community). Planning is politicized in different ways: through discourse, plans, planner’s attention to political voices and space of dialogue ruled by politics and demands. This article discusses how to move from procedures to agonism or strife. Outlining some important contemporary studies on participation, including the debate on ‘good enough’ solutions, discussing the ideas of ‘temporary resting places’ and ‘strategic navigation’, this article introduces ‘the unfinished’ as a way of thinking and doing, and how a ‘de’-cisional mode of acting is responding to a praxis always ‘on the move’. The aim is, on one hand, to explore governmental modes of decision from a public participation perspective, and on the other hand, to point to the transformative potentials of working as temporary, navigating, from ‘solutions for now’, or better, unfinished.

• Pløger, John (2021). Politics, planning, and ruling: the art of taming public participation. International Planning Studies. ISSN 1356-3475. 26(4), p. 426–440. doi: 10.1080/13563475.2021.1883422. Full text in Research Archive
• Pløger, John (2021). Improvisation. Det ufærdige rum som udfordring. In Pløger, John; Førde, Anniken & Sand, Anne-Lene (Ed.), Improvisasjon. Byliv mellom plan og planløshet. Scandinavian Academic Press. ISSN 9788230403006. p. 25–44.
• Førde, Anniken; Pløger, John & Sand, Anne-Lene (2021). Improvisation og byplanlægning – mellem plan og planløshed. In Pløger, John; Førde, Anniken & Sand, Anne-Lene (Ed.), Improvisasjon. Byliv mellom plan og planløshet. Scandinavian Academic Press. ISSN 9788230403006.
• Pløger, John (2021). Conflict, consent, dissensus: The unfinished as challenge to politics and planning. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. ISSN 2399-6544. 39(6), p. 1294–1309. doi: 10.1177/2399654420985849.
• Pløger, John (2020). Dining out as a performative event. Urban Research and Practice. ISSN 1753-5069. doi: 10.1080/17535069.2020.1737726. Full text in Research Archive
• Pløger, John (2019). Affektiv urbanisme, performative byrom og eventalisering av bylivet. In Henriksen, Ida Marie & Tjora, Aksel (Ed.), Bysamfunn. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 978-82-15-03005-0. p. 84–97. Show summary

  Denne antologien presenterer en rekke ulike perspektiver og forskningsbaserte innganger til forståelsen av det urbane samfunnet. Kapitlene tar opp temaer som deltakelse, medbestemmelse og demokratiske prosesser i byutvikling, følelsesmessige sider ved bysamfunn, kreativt byliv og uformell næring, historisk identitet og bevaring, turisme og konsum, samt personlige teknologier og idéen om smarte byer. Gjennomgående spørsmål dreier seg om hvordan byene fungerer sosialt i dag og hvordan de kan utvikles for best mulig å understøtte mangfoldige fellesskap. Boka henvender seg til alle som studerer, forsker på, arbeider med eller er interessert i byutvikling, planlegging og samfunnsvitenskap.

• Pløger, John (2018). Imbrication. In Haggärde, Magdalena & Løkken, Gisle (Ed.), Layered Landscapes Lofoten. Understanding of complexity, otherness and change . ACTAR. ISSN 9781948765060. p. 92–100.
• Pløger, John (2018). Imbrication. In Haggärde, Magdalena & Løkken, Gisle (Ed.), Layered Landscapes Lofoten. Understanding of complexity, otherness and change . ACTAR. ISSN 9781948765060.
• Nyseth, Torill & Pløger, John (2015). Perspektiver på steders tilblivelse. In Aure, Marit; Berg, Nina Gunnerud; Cruickshank, Jørn & Dale, Britt Engan (Ed.), Med sans for sted. Nyere teorier. Fagbokforlaget. ISSN 9788245017779. p. 47–64.
• Pløger, John (2015). The Evental City: Moment, Situation, Presence. Space and Culture. ISSN 1206-3312. doi: 10.1177/1206331215595729.
• Pløger, John (2014). Impossible common ground. Planning and reconciliation. In Metzger, Jonathan; Allmendinger, Philip & Oosterlynck, Stijn (Ed.), Planning Against the Political : Democratic Deficits in European Territorial Governance. Routledge. ISSN 978-0-415-82770-6. p. 107–128.
• Pløger, John (2013). Heterotopia, Sites and Utopia. In Mallo, Daniel & Tradiveau, Armelle (Ed.), Christiania, a Place of Otherness: A Study in Urban Design & Architecture. School of Architecture Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University. ISSN 978-0-7017-0247-2. p. 1–5.

View all works in Cristin

• Pløger, John (2021). Improvisation: Det ufærdige rum som udfordring. Scandinavian Academic Press. ISBN 9788230402559. 320 p.
• Pløger, John; Førde, Anniken & Sand, Anne-Lene (2021). Improvisasjon. Byliv mellom plan og planløshet. Scandinavian Academic Press. ISBN 9788230403006.
• Pløger, John; Førde, Anniken & Sand, Anne-Lene (2021). Improvisasjon. Mellom plan og planløshet. Scandinavian Academic Press. ISBN 9788230402559.
• Pløger, John & Aspen, Jonny (2015). Den vitale byen. Spartacus. ISBN 9788230401651. 350 p.
• Pløger, John (2014). Den efemere by. BoD Danmark. ISBN 9788771458756. 240 p. Show summary

  Byen er efemer. Den er fragmenteret, emergent, flygtig og flydende, sammenvævninger og konfigurationer. At beskrive byen er ikke enkelt, at forstå byen som erfaringsrum kræver fantasi. I alle tilfælde er forståelse og beskrivelse, begrebsliggørelse og kategorier temporære. Mange hævder den perceptive oplevelse af byen er primær, ‘først’, men bl.a. Walter Benjamin og Georg Simmel hævdede vi ‘kulturaliseres’ ind i en verden af drømme, minder og fortællinger som erfarings-vilkår. Byen er hændelser og begivenhedsgøringer af (hverdags)liv, steder og rum. Byens iscenesættelser inkluderer gade-teater, uformelle møderum, konsum, rytmer eller vandringer som involverer blikke, begær, affekt eller måske angst. Der skabes atmosfærer i her-og-nu rum, og byerne forsøger at stimulere dette gennem kulturelle begivenheder og kunst-praksiser. De temporære byrum ses som et attraktivt element for den inter-urbane konkurrence, men byerne anvender dem ikke som et strategisk værktøj. Denne bog har ingen svar, men kan måske stimulere til hele tiden at søge nye tilgange til at forstå erfaringen med byen med. I boken er det temaer som viljer og intensitet, den nihilistiske by, urbane assemblager, og byen som begivenheter (presence-events). Bogen er teoretisk, men også en kritisk dialog med byplanlægning og arkitekter. Ikke for at give andre svar end de giver på den materielle formning af byen, men for at udvide horisonten for hvad der bør samtales om, når der skal planlægges med byliv i den efemere by.

View all works in Cristin

• Pløger, John (2023). Michel Foucault, power and planning. In Gunder, Michael; Grange, Kristina & Winkler, Tanja (Ed.), Handbook on Planning and Power. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781839109751. p. 58–73. doi: 10.43337/9781839109768.
• Pløger, John (2017). Bygaten og den performative urbanisme. Plan: Tidsskrift for samfunnsplanlegging, byplan og regional utvikling. ISSN 0805-083X. p. 76–80.
• Pløger, John (2017). Angsten for eksperimentet. KOTE. ISSN 1893-8132. p. 58–62.
• Cruickshank, Jørn & Pløger, John (2015). Hva mener politikerne? Fædrelandsvennen. ISSN 0805-3790. p. 21–21.
• Cruickshank, Jørn & Pløger, John (2015). Biler skaper ikke byliv. Fædrelandsvennen. ISSN 0805-3790. p. 23–23.
• Cruickshank, Jørn & Pløger, John (2015). Kampen mot forenkling. Fædrelandsvennen. ISSN 0805-3790. p. 24–24.
• Pløger, John & Cruickshank, Jørn (2014). "Houston, we have a problem!". Fædrelandsvennen. ISSN 0805-3790.
• Pløger, John (2013). Makt, strid, liv - og avmakt. Plan: Tidsskrift for samfunnsplanlegging, byplan og regional utvikling. ISSN 0805-083X. p. 14–17.

View all works in Cristin