Special Issue Urbanities, Vol. 7 · No 2 · November 2017 The Dreams and Nightmares of City Development © 2017 Urbanities Urban Transformations, Ideologies of Planning and Actors’ Interplay in a Booming City — Austin, Texas Marie Le Guen (University Lumière Lyon 2)
[email protected] The city of Austin, state capital of Texas, has been experiencing an impressive process of metropolization, while growing very quickly, since the end of the twentieth century. Its successful adaptation to the economy’s global trends and the growth it brings about are destabilizing Austin’s planning system, which is already very constrained in Texas’ most conservative political framework. Increasing tensions between established groups of actors and the emergence of newer ones prompt several changes in the professional and civic culture of the various actors involved in the urban planning field. These changes arise from the fact that these groups of actors are confronted with urban mutations never seen before. The ideology of planning, its meanings and its practices, are also evolving in this economic and social context, allowing for a larger citizens’ participation and putting sustainability on the political agenda. Keywords: Urban planning, public participation, democracy, sustainable development. Introduction Since the end of the twentieth century, Austin, the state capital of Texas, has experienced tremendous population and economic growth, as well as a diversification of its urban functions, which can be condensed into the process called metropolization. Exhibited as a ‘creative city’ (Florida 2002), Austin embodies a successful adaptation to the global trends. The quick growth, partly resulting from this adaptation, is fuelling urban sprawl, causing environmental degradation, and destabilizing its planning system.