**7. Bricolage planning opportunities and limits**

In the light of the three sample cases, we identify here three central elements in the development of bricolage planning: the constitution of the "universe of instruments", the experience and the articulation to larger dynamics; and behind them all, the initial profile of the municipal actor-network as explanatory variable.

The universe of instruments is very important in the capacity of action of a municipal actornetwork. The main determinant of this universe of instruments is the problematization of the municipal question by the actor-network through the locality's identity and the municipal vision. Failing to present an inclusive locality's identity nor an ambitious municipal vision may represent an important weakness to any municipal actor-network. It

Bricolage Planning: Understanding Planning in a Fragmented City 121

tools. As we said before, the experience of the place and the people is linked to what Thévenot (1995) calls the regime of familiarity, and in our case the local actors. It is central to guide the municipal actor-network's action through the subtleties of the local. An actornetwork that didn't succeed to enrol the proper local actors will have tremendous difficulty in acting in a certain place. The least it'll be facing is indifference, the worst, open resistance and sabotage. Knowledge of tools and professional experience is the other type of experience central to the success of municipal action, and it is usually a difficult one to achieve for municipal actor-networks with no reaches on other scales. This is why a municipal actor-network articulated to large partisan actor-networks has an important initial asset compared with other localized ones. However, less formal relations or affiliations in the case of localized networks, like those headed by family clans, could also play an important role. Access to specialized NGOs or development institutions may well provide the needed expertise. Experience is also something that could be constructed over time. Of course, municipal actor-network are faced with the pressure of elections and the need to produce results within municipal terms, which makes time a costly commodity. But, in some cases, where the electoral outcome is not directly dependent of municipal development performance, even marginal municipal actor-networks who can secure longterm in office might well have the time to learn and build their own experience. This explains for example how in Lebanon – where the disjunction of the geography of vote and geography of residence dissociates electoral politics and local development – we can observe, after twelve years of the first post-war municipal elections, a general increase of

The articulation to the larger context is the central issue that pushes these actor-networks to pass from ad hoc development to bricolage planning. As we said earlier, the main challenges to the municipalities in building their territory and reclaiming their place as central actors in their localities, are on one hand incorporating the neighbourhoods and local actors' projects and concerns in their territorial construction and at the other articulating it with larger metropolitan and communitarian territorial constructions. It is clear that ad hoc development is a good way to incorporate local actors and places, since it allows the municipal actor-network by initiating development projects with them and in them. It even enables it to resist against larger territorialisation, by providing an alternative to this territorialisation or by mobilizing. However, the municipal actornetwork will have to face sooner or later the question of urban planning. That can be the result of a gradual evolution, where success in executing multiple development projects is paving the way for a more integrated perspective. Or it can be the result of abrupt and important changes on other levels that may bring in considerable effects on the local level and impose on the municipal actor-network an overall reflection to deal with these challenges. This is mainly the case with the economic dimension that is not usually at the

This evolution towards a larger strategic perspective does not necessarily mean that a viable municipal planning will consequently emerge on that level. First, planning is a more comprehensive exercise than development. It aims for the long-run; an articulation of different aspects of human life, towards "the greater good of the population". Consequently introducing new dimensions like participation, legitimacy and the articulation to other

professionalization of the municipal action.

centre of municipal policy.

is through these tools that it can enrol actors and places with substantial resources to allow it to engage in audacious or innovative initiatives. However, problematization could develop in different manners and contextual variables may have an important impact on the universe of instruments of a municipal actor-network. Existing problems, for example, never were a factor leading to proactivity. Nevertheless, it usually presses other actors to take position once an actor makes an issue of it. In fact, urgency may well be a catalyser of municipal actor-network development and the constitution of the universe of instruments. Other important factors are the initial diversity and reach – mainly in terms of scale – of the core actors. The presence at the centre of the municipal actor-network of members with access to other types of actor-networks gives them larger room for manoeuvre, possibly creating ad-hoc coalitions that will enlarge the universe of instruments of municipality.

In the cases we've studied we saw a mobilization of a large variety of tools developed in different "cultures" of planning: communication tools, advocacy tools, physical planning tools and place making tools. As in the "pastiche" trend dominant in planning (Dear, 2000), the municipal actor-networks do not hesitate to cumulate initially contradictory logics. In fact, they themselves are patchworks of actors with different skills and backgrounds. Here, the only concern is the capacity to act, and the dominant state of mind is pragmatism. In today's cities, where decentralization usually translates in an administrative fragmentation of urban agglomerations, we consider that the situation of the municipal actor-networks of Beirut's suburbs is far from being exceptional. Faced with the formidable challenge of articulating local dynamics with larger ones, the urban municipal actor-networks are the still trying to find their way, mainly by experimenting different tools. Decentralized cooperation has and still is largely contributing to the travel of tools and experimentations. This tendency will surely grow with the development at the national and international levels of forums and NGOs that work precisely on the dissemination of "good practices" between local actors. However, some tools are keener to be mobilized than others in particular situations, according to variables related to the municipal actor-networks' profiles.

The master plan tool most probably be used when the municipal actor-network core actors lack the needed resources to engage in their project. Its legal power has the advantage of presenting guarantees of stability to the enterprise, consequently, making of it a central tool for enrolling new strategic actors. At the opposite, a resourceful, large and diverse municipal actor-network may well discard the master plan tool. A municipality faced with pressures of providing rapid and effective solutions, will see the master plan track as timeconsuming and a door for other "unwelcomed" actors to enter and impose "unnecessary" negotiations. In these cases, an ambitious, but clearly identified vision may well suffice. It defines the frame through which each actor in the actor-network will bring his contribution to the larger project. As for the real-estates' stock building tool it might well be somehow exceptional, requiring in order to be effective a very resourceful municipal actor-network capable of managing a complicated multi-step initiative (buying real-estates, building scenarios' portfolios and negotiating with donors), and discreet enough so not to jeopardize the whole operation. A municipal actor-network with centralized decision-making processes is needed to succeed to do so.

The question of experience is also central in the success of Bricolage planning. Two types of experiences are central here, that of the place and the people, and that of the issues and the

is through these tools that it can enrol actors and places with substantial resources to allow it to engage in audacious or innovative initiatives. However, problematization could develop in different manners and contextual variables may have an important impact on the universe of instruments of a municipal actor-network. Existing problems, for example, never were a factor leading to proactivity. Nevertheless, it usually presses other actors to take position once an actor makes an issue of it. In fact, urgency may well be a catalyser of municipal actor-network development and the constitution of the universe of instruments. Other important factors are the initial diversity and reach – mainly in terms of scale – of the core actors. The presence at the centre of the municipal actor-network of members with access to other types of actor-networks gives them larger room for manoeuvre, possibly creating ad-hoc coalitions that will enlarge the universe of instruments of municipality.

In the cases we've studied we saw a mobilization of a large variety of tools developed in different "cultures" of planning: communication tools, advocacy tools, physical planning tools and place making tools. As in the "pastiche" trend dominant in planning (Dear, 2000), the municipal actor-networks do not hesitate to cumulate initially contradictory logics. In fact, they themselves are patchworks of actors with different skills and backgrounds. Here, the only concern is the capacity to act, and the dominant state of mind is pragmatism. In today's cities, where decentralization usually translates in an administrative fragmentation of urban agglomerations, we consider that the situation of the municipal actor-networks of Beirut's suburbs is far from being exceptional. Faced with the formidable challenge of articulating local dynamics with larger ones, the urban municipal actor-networks are the still trying to find their way, mainly by experimenting different tools. Decentralized cooperation has and still is largely contributing to the travel of tools and experimentations. This tendency will surely grow with the development at the national and international levels of forums and NGOs that work precisely on the dissemination of "good practices" between local actors. However, some tools are keener to be mobilized than others in particular situations, according to variables related to the municipal actor-networks'

The master plan tool most probably be used when the municipal actor-network core actors lack the needed resources to engage in their project. Its legal power has the advantage of presenting guarantees of stability to the enterprise, consequently, making of it a central tool for enrolling new strategic actors. At the opposite, a resourceful, large and diverse municipal actor-network may well discard the master plan tool. A municipality faced with pressures of providing rapid and effective solutions, will see the master plan track as timeconsuming and a door for other "unwelcomed" actors to enter and impose "unnecessary" negotiations. In these cases, an ambitious, but clearly identified vision may well suffice. It defines the frame through which each actor in the actor-network will bring his contribution to the larger project. As for the real-estates' stock building tool it might well be somehow exceptional, requiring in order to be effective a very resourceful municipal actor-network capable of managing a complicated multi-step initiative (buying real-estates, building scenarios' portfolios and negotiating with donors), and discreet enough so not to jeopardize the whole operation. A municipal actor-network with centralized decision-making processes

The question of experience is also central in the success of Bricolage planning. Two types of experiences are central here, that of the place and the people, and that of the issues and the

profiles.

is needed to succeed to do so.

tools. As we said before, the experience of the place and the people is linked to what Thévenot (1995) calls the regime of familiarity, and in our case the local actors. It is central to guide the municipal actor-network's action through the subtleties of the local. An actornetwork that didn't succeed to enrol the proper local actors will have tremendous difficulty in acting in a certain place. The least it'll be facing is indifference, the worst, open resistance and sabotage. Knowledge of tools and professional experience is the other type of experience central to the success of municipal action, and it is usually a difficult one to achieve for municipal actor-networks with no reaches on other scales. This is why a municipal actor-network articulated to large partisan actor-networks has an important initial asset compared with other localized ones. However, less formal relations or affiliations in the case of localized networks, like those headed by family clans, could also play an important role. Access to specialized NGOs or development institutions may well provide the needed expertise. Experience is also something that could be constructed over time. Of course, municipal actor-network are faced with the pressure of elections and the need to produce results within municipal terms, which makes time a costly commodity. But, in some cases, where the electoral outcome is not directly dependent of municipal development performance, even marginal municipal actor-networks who can secure longterm in office might well have the time to learn and build their own experience. This explains for example how in Lebanon – where the disjunction of the geography of vote and geography of residence dissociates electoral politics and local development – we can observe, after twelve years of the first post-war municipal elections, a general increase of professionalization of the municipal action.

The articulation to the larger context is the central issue that pushes these actor-networks to pass from ad hoc development to bricolage planning. As we said earlier, the main challenges to the municipalities in building their territory and reclaiming their place as central actors in their localities, are on one hand incorporating the neighbourhoods and local actors' projects and concerns in their territorial construction and at the other articulating it with larger metropolitan and communitarian territorial constructions. It is clear that ad hoc development is a good way to incorporate local actors and places, since it allows the municipal actor-network by initiating development projects with them and in them. It even enables it to resist against larger territorialisation, by providing an alternative to this territorialisation or by mobilizing. However, the municipal actornetwork will have to face sooner or later the question of urban planning. That can be the result of a gradual evolution, where success in executing multiple development projects is paving the way for a more integrated perspective. Or it can be the result of abrupt and important changes on other levels that may bring in considerable effects on the local level and impose on the municipal actor-network an overall reflection to deal with these challenges. This is mainly the case with the economic dimension that is not usually at the centre of municipal policy.

This evolution towards a larger strategic perspective does not necessarily mean that a viable municipal planning will consequently emerge on that level. First, planning is a more comprehensive exercise than development. It aims for the long-run; an articulation of different aspects of human life, towards "the greater good of the population". Consequently introducing new dimensions like participation, legitimacy and the articulation to other

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territorial scales, all new questions with their own stakes that the accumulated experience in urban development doesn't necessarily help to treat. Secondly, the margin of manoeuvre is limited for a municipal actor-network in dealing with well-established and organized actornetworks on the national level with large resources. In a situation of confrontation, the latter's wills will prevail in the long run, since they're capable of interesting local actors and destabilizing municipal actor-networks. Municipal planning is hardly a guaranteed outcome of ad hoc development.

Bricolage planning could furtherdevelop on an intercommunal level. Again here, the experience of the municipalities in Lebanon is interesting in that regard. To get a say on strategic issues, mainly economic ones, municipalities are creating or integrating municipal unions. In fact, in the last three or four years, a number of unions are engaging in studies and strategies for constructing a common territory based on territorial planning schemes where the economic dimension is central. This process is still in its first phases and it is too soon to comment it, but it is clear that it is largely in the continuity of the municipal revival in Lebanon. It builds on its experience, and is here to complement the shortcomings of the municipal actor-networks on the planning dimension. Time will tell of the fate of an intercommunal bricolage planning actor-network approach. This may well just be a headlong rush to escape the limitations of the municipal level, or just a rebound by municipal actor-network leadership seeking by the change of scale to restore stability in a actor-network wary of exhaustion, but that will ultimately be caught up by its structural limitations.

We surely have presented and commented here three sample cases, but in reality, we consider they represent the same central case, that of networks trying to restructure their urban environments and bring in development to their areas. Local divergences are surely important variables leading the municipal actor-networks on different tracks; but at the end we see clearly that the stakes are practically the same: linking a complex governance to a fragmented socio-spatial urban space, while securing the stability of the network and restructuring the urban landscape. All three samples have gone from problematization to generalization differently but, all the same, they all walked this bricolage planning path. In fact, this path is as ANT has shown that of every network trying to move into action and keep its stability.

As presented by different authors, urban planning practice seems largely domesticated by powerful interests ascepticized from any political dimension. Though we concur with the overall impression on the actual trends in the profession of planners, we believe that urban planning practice however, is on the contrary strongly repoliticizing. In fact, planning is more and more thought and developed by other actors than planners, actors that want to use planning to find their place in complex governance landscapes. Fragmentation has led to the multiplication of these actors, especially on the local level. Beirut's experience shows that these actors are capable of networking, experimenting and learning, moving to larger scale perspective even in extreme conflictual conditions. The bricoleurs of Beirut are hardly alone. Urban planning is indeed in reconstruction. Its renaissance may well be through the things that it tried long to escape: embracing politicization, small scale and fragmentation. Bricolage planning is indeed a step in that direction
