Israeli Planners and Designers
Profiles of Community Builders
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In their own words, the stories of the men and women who are the planners, architects, community organizers--the hidden builders--of the modern state of Israel.
Description
This book documents the goals, lives, experiences, and practice of planners, architects, and community organizers who have contributed to the physical and social development of the modern state of Israel. In their own words, these "community builders" share their professional experiences of how they protect and rebuild cities and neighborhoods, how they overcome stereotypes and bureaucratic inertia, how they protect the natural environment and the public health as well. The stories illustrate the practical world of community change in which aesthetics and politics, ethnicity and tradition, commitment and inspiration, hard work and hope all play a part. Students of urban and community life in many countries will be able to draw elements and themes from these particular stories that resonate with their own concerns, experience, and future work.
John Forester is Professor of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University and the author of The Deliberative Practitioner: Encouraging Participatory Planning Processes and Planning in the Face of Power. Raphaël Fischler is Associate Professor of Urban Planning at McGill University. Deborah Shmueli is Senior Lecturer of Planning and Environmental Policy in the Geography Department at Haifa University.
Reviews
"After conducting decades of planning research using social science protocols, planning scholars have returned to other forms, including narrative. The stories told in this book offer windows of insight into the world of planning practice. I was especially impressed by the diversity of the respondents and the quality of the interview material. Rare indeed are stories about the building of settlements in Israel that describe in detail how Jews and Arabs collaborate." — Charles J. Hoch, author of What Planners Do: Power, Politics, and Persuasion
"Rich, interesting, engaging stories from people who have done exciting things—creating a nation, engaging ethnic differences, designing places or institutions, planning in crises, and the like." — Howell S. Baum, author of The Organization of Hope: Communities Planning Themselves