**2. Space, a conflictual concept**

sense, relationships give rise to order. Hence, the temporal relations give rise to a temporal order and the spatial relations to a spatial order. What's more, it is not easy to make a plausible preliminary list of basic spatial relationships in terms of its designated entities [1]. Few concepts are more crucial to understand our world today than power, especially when politics and planning emerge as key spatial determinants in conflict affected areas, thus the

Arguments concerning the theory of space under conflict have reappeared in the agenda of many scholars and theorists in recent years. Conflict in its broad definition means a struggle or clash between opposing forces, armed aggression, widespread violence, and widespread human rights abuses. It represents a state of opposition between ideas and interests. Spatially, "conflict areas" are zones where "conflict" is prevalent. The area may be a region, a country, an area within a country, or an area that crosses one or more country boundaries. In the context of conflict areas, urban fabric is in a continuous process of change. Immigrants cluster together and mix with others; ethnic and racial groups are segregated in ghettos and slums, and the nonmarginalized are able to displace to more habitable places; poor families are forced to look for other quarters, because of rabid urban restructuring; and classy housings are developed on the most attractive spaces, in order to attract the rich. Thus, spaces are divided. Likewise, separated neighborhoods indicate the presence of different urban fabrics within a city. These all have different features; they may be modern or undeveloped, secured or risky, deprived or privileged, clean or dirty, old or new, or contrasted on countless other aspects. Remarkably, there is a certain contrast in these spaces: between luxurious and marginalized zones and between places where only those wealthy can afford to live and places where the deprived are forced to live because of the lack of alternatives elsewhere [2]. These cities are described as

divided cities, dual cities, polarized cities, fragmented cities, and partitioned cities [3].

ning and politics, where the latter has strongly and directly influenced the former.

The relationship between division and planning is prominent, but questionable. In contested spaces, deliberate and discriminatory actions against the weaker population occur. As such, planning in many cases is inequitable, implicitly biased and reflects not what it promises to be. It is used as a control tool over the marginal group, rather than a tool for positive change. Hence, in conflict areas, urban planning has to be re-conceptualized to go beyond the narrow framework of physical land use planning. Therefore, the 3P concept [planning, power, and politics] can help to address this as it is a dynamic process that underpins the ambiguity of the spatial modality created in conflict areas and correlates that concept with a pertinent case study: Jerusalem. During the last decades, many conflict cities witnessed hypersegregation, ethnic separation, and persistent racial discrimination, as what has been seen in Belfast, Nicosia, Beirut, and Mostar. However, the case of Jerusalem is more passionate, as it presents the case of deeply divided city due to the intensity of the ethnic conflict it has faced for more than 70 years, and eventually, its perception as a frontier city [4]. And so, the urgent need to assess and reread the space in Jerusalem in the context of changing socio-political power arises. Consequently, it is important to scrutinize such influence upon East Jerusalem's (EJ) urban space after the Israeli occupation of 1967 and to explore this interaction between plan-

spatial identifications shall ultimately be intensified.

218 Land Use - Assessing the Past, Envisioning the Future

Transformation of a given status is not, unquestionably, one of the core themes of philosophy. The abstract character of the philosophical work in the past and present is rooted in the social conditions of existence. Social struggles rage when various socio-political dimensions merge together. Transformation of space produces tension between power and different social strata forming what is known as the battle over performance space [5]. Presentations of space outline a complex set of variables and power and politics surface as important indicators. The role of space in the producing cultural and political power has been largely ignored in cultural theory and criticism. Focusing on power as a spatial presentation helps researchers to precisely theorize the manifold social reproduction processes [6].

Space is classified into two main categories: mental space (experiential) and physical space (existential). Experiential space, in a merely metamorphic sense, refers to a mental image or nonphysical representation for time or duration, area or extension. Whereas, existential space has three dimensions considered as a volume not an area. According to many, this is illusionary. Invoking space as a metaphor rather than a physical "quantifiable" subject is problematic, because invocations of space habitually adopt space as known, specified, and unproblematic [7]. Space is exponentially correlated to social relations and is the convenient medium of power that is socially constituted through material relationships that enable an explicit political interaction. The historic spatial relationship of powers defines history as pure reflection of spaces which evidently would be the history of power [8]. The basic explanation of power represents influence, forte, movement, and strength. In this regard, space can be expressed as an active, nonstatic or limited object; it is rather a result of relations that are themselves dynamic and continuously changing [9].

Instability addresses, implicitly, a conflict of powers regardless of their form, be it physical, natural, political, or social for example. Spatial configurations thus constitute unequal relations and, therefore, the emergence of differences and the quest for power. That "mess" of relations is useful for theorizing the "unbalanced powers" and "unequal relations" of a space in terms of social complexity (classes, races, segregation, etc.). Therefore, terms differentiating strong and weak powers, such as dominant and marginal relations, respectively, arise. Hence, the "differences" emerging out of spatial relationships are addressed in social and the cultural theory [10]. The spatiality of powers (re)-constitutes our social references and identities. Space and spatial relations should be considered as active components in the unequal and heterogeneous production and distribution of social references, politics, and powers, which altogether highlight place configurations.

For a better interpretation of the socio-spatial relationships between space and place, it is important to refuse considering the framework of social identities as the sole background against which all other investigations of social or cultural relations occur. This is key as social markers are constantly varying parameters, and they are also continually altered, disputed, and reproduced. Space comprises an active and constantly changing site of power; however, the theory of "politics of location" does not critically capture that phenomenon [6].

Recalling the meaning of space highlights the necessity to underline the changing characteristics of space in social and physical aspects. To exemplify this abstract concept, space representation helps clarify this subject. Capturing a physical presentation of space, such as the city, seamlessly outlines how space is a lively non-static mass, rather a dynamic organism. The philosophical interpretation of the city concept asserts the need to understand the relationships carried out within this "closed container" before analyzing its components, and to accept that "the city" is not merely a container. Another pertinent explanation introduces the city as a place where there is still a recognizable concentrated, teeming, dynamic expression of urbanism. It is a place that becomes very enjoyable for its inhabitants and lots of visitors every year [11]. In theory, the fundamental meaning of space or place is a relative norm, which is highly correlated to social and cultural concepts; it depends on the cognitive images of a place conceived by the manifold experiences and backgrounds of people.

debatable, but also their distinction depending on the comprehensive integration for grasping the interconnected spatial relationships, social, power, politics, and processes among them. Indeed, critical philosophy highlights politics, among the heterogeneous and conflictual elements of space as an internal parameter and major player; thus the overall production process of space and place is genuinely a political event [18]. This conclusion is coherent with the concrete foundation of dialectics: the contradiction. Spatial contradictions of urban spaces born of political conflicts are played out between social benefits, economic powers, and political forces, which express themselves in place, an element of space. Yet, dialectically, these elements are divergent components of the same unity; however, the significance of these qualitative aspects of place and how they, in turn, shape space, cannot be downplayed.

Planning, Power, and Politics (3P): Critical Review of the Hidden Role of Spatial Planning…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.78779

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Rethinking the traditional definition of sustainability, especially during the recurrent global and regional challenges—notably massive immigration, urban shrinkage, dissolving heritage, climate change, poverty, and injustice, etc.—has become more critical and progressively urgent. Spatial development could be addressed as a normative, but challenging, response to community and human needs. However, troubling debates have been gaining ground and therefore bringing attention to the multidimensional consequences presented during historical development of modern society. The Industrial Revolution witnessed rapid transformation in both the norms of knowledge and community urban growth patterns. Unfortunately, the fast mode of production and unregulated urban growth resulted, in many cases, in social degradation, poor living conditions, and environmental concerns [19]. Reconsidering the norms of urban growth and the models of development thus became an urgent issue. Consequently, the science of sustainability has shown up introducing significant challenges for planners and policy makers as well. Sustainable development is, therefore, a major concern with reference to the crucial need to protect the global environment while attaining a better life for people. The concept of sustainability continues to attract more attention; thus, sustainable development is presented in more than two hundred definitions, while featured on more than 8 mil-

Sustainable development is thoroughly tied to the environmental concerns that continue to introduce changes in knowledge and the sciences. The world has changed rapidly due to the conception of sustainability; however, most of the challenges that gave impulse to the introduction of the concept have not yet been solved. On contrary, the irreversible loss of natural resources, rapid depletion of certain energy resources, troubling climate change, and social injustices are observed. Originally, the interest about sustainability intensified in the 1980s. In 1987, the classical definition of sustainable development was drafted in "Brundtland Report - Our Common Future" as the paths of human progress that meet the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The Brundtland Report incorporated components of sustainability within the economic and political context of international development, as well as combining ethical norms of welfare, democracy, and environment [21]. Sustainability science has revealed advanced development over the last decade [22]. It explores long-term relationships and implications between

**3. Sustainability: a new revolutionary definition**

lion web pages and the number keeps rising [20].

The interest in place and space has significantly grown during the last century; it is reflected by the development of the so-called new regional geography [12]. In consequence, presentations of space and the development of place related themes became far sighted during the 1980s and repeated invocations about spatial perspectives within the geographical imagination. The dialectic mode of thinking facilitates understanding the paradoxical nature of space. The corner stone of dialectics attempts to philosophize what the world is without detaching its components for the purpose of analysis and presentation [13]. Dialectical reflections commonly address the question of change regarding various spatial questions: interrelationships, interconnections and interactions, processes, activities, flows, relations, and eventually contradiction. Accordingly, dialecticians often conceptualize "dynamism" as the basic framework to all matter and thus "stability" is an irrelevant status that necessitates explanation.

Philosopher Sir Isaac Newton elaborated that space is absolute, proper to itself, and independent of the objects it contains. According to the dialectical mode of argumentation, the complex composition of space—notably spatial relations, power, politics, productions, and phenomena—is conceived just as a single entity, that is to say with the quality of wholeness. Wholeness (totality) could be demonstrated as "*the way the whole is present through the internal relations of each of its parts*" [14]. Although it is not possible to comprehend multiple interrelated elements of a whole without understanding how the elements relate to each other within this whole, totality is signified in its wholeness as: *"a need to look on the world as an undivided whole"* [15]. However, other philosophical approaches oppose dialectical thinking and contrast obviously with the notions of wholeness, considering separate objects by splitting thoughts and problems into parts and in rearranging these in their rational order. This mode of argumentation represents the Cartesian method, which is a scientific philosophy that explores the reality via mechanical and mathematical representations, and also perceived to be merely as the "method of doubt" [16]. From this regard, space could be perceived as being autonomous or a passive empty container independent of physical characteristics [17]. Wholeness, as such, amounts to nothing more than the sum of the parts. Conversely, dialecticians reject this approach of detaching the diverse features of reality. Instead, the dialectical philosophy confirms the unity of knowledge and the total character of reality. Space, therefore, in this logic is a unity containing within itself different aspects.

Needless to say, the border line between the total and the part is undetectable. Not only is the concrete character of space and place in terms of their real ontological status, therefore, debatable, but also their distinction depending on the comprehensive integration for grasping the interconnected spatial relationships, social, power, politics, and processes among them. Indeed, critical philosophy highlights politics, among the heterogeneous and conflictual elements of space as an internal parameter and major player; thus the overall production process of space and place is genuinely a political event [18]. This conclusion is coherent with the concrete foundation of dialectics: the contradiction. Spatial contradictions of urban spaces born of political conflicts are played out between social benefits, economic powers, and political forces, which express themselves in place, an element of space. Yet, dialectically, these elements are divergent components of the same unity; however, the significance of these qualitative aspects of place and how they, in turn, shape space, cannot be downplayed.
