Urban management and institutional capacity, project management, innovation dimensions of planning projects: IMP experience from Istanbul

Metropolises over 10 million inhabitants in the world have been facing with similar issues and challenges differentiate them from smaller ones. One of the emerging scientific approaches is to address such systems as complex adaptive systems and to develop new inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary frameworks to understand their realities. This thesis is focusing on the institutional world of big city planning practices with different disciplines' glasses in order to contribute our understanding of dynamics and mechanics of such complex adaptive systems. The purpose of this effort is to provide new insight and deeper understanding to develop new generation theories that would have more impact on practice, by linking complex practice with diverse theories. The thesis is an introductory study on the phenomenological aspects of the decade of planning practices in Istanbul Metropolitan Area from project management, institutional capacity and innovation dimensions. The motivation is to understand the nature of uncertainty and complexity of these processes. For that reason, longitudinal analysis employed for incorporating complex institutional dynamics and organizational mechanics with overt and covert participant observation techniques. The particular decade of the thesis period Istanbul, Turkey and the world has experienced major economic, political and social transformations. This study is neither going in line with the mainstream popular neo-liberal critics in academia nor competing with them. On the contrary, the researcher as an observer being part of the observed reality, brought out of his comfort zone in order to come up with new type of knowledge and insight out of the mainstream clichés. The unique aspects of this study are to access primary sources, and to conduct a continuous observation for a decade. The objective is to contribute the need for research on the influence and impacts of organizational dynamics as part of uncertainties characterized with institutional vicious cycles with integrated perspective focusing on planning practices. The case study tries to identify those aspects of different but interrelated planning practices experienced between 2005-2015 in and around Istanbul Metropolitan Area. The theoretical frameworks elaborated at several levels. At first, broader perspective on core sciences namely physics and systems approach fundamentally determined the scientific background of planning discipline elaborated. Brand new findings in CERN by 2015 have shown the scientists have observed the theoretical findings of the 20th century of quantum physics. Since majority of theories adapted from physics, analogy frames future debate at broader sense. Second, systems approach and organizations discussed with towards complex adaptive systems. Third level debate is about cross-cultural and dramaturgical perspectives on city making, and complex multi-actor decision-making practices that provided unique insights. Notion of institutional capacity and capacity building in the literature emerges with global and regional economic restructuring periods, financial crisis times, new regionalism policies, fiscal and administrative decentralization, and nation building contexts. Institution building and capacity building are components of spatial planning projects, urban development strategies and associated processes in the world. Urban management and institutional capacity concepts are linked in different theoretical perspectives. For instance introducing adhocracy and consultocracy concepts for the planning practice in Turkey and particularly in Istanbul is a new finding by this study. In addition, cultural dimensions of organizations particularly focusing on power distance, uncertainty and long term visioning are highly related to the meaning and the performance of planning processes, and the praxis of the case study. Introducing dramaturgical sociology perspective focuses on roles, stages and impression management is another framework clearly explains the mechanics of institutional aspects of planning projects in the case study. With this new scientific perspective, for instance complex adaptive systems approach has reflections in organizational sciences and public administration that make sense for this thesis. Particularly this reflection would hold a light to our understanding of complex decision making of cities as learning open systems. It has been understood that re-interpretation of institutional analysis of Istanbul experience in the years 2005-2015 is essential. Urbanism and regional planning disciplines had an opportunity to meet with diverse practice that needs to re-interpreted in the light of scientific debates and recent development around the world. The methodology, analysis and results of this study aimed to provide input for professional and academic education and training processes that would contribute efficient and effective applications. The city of Istanbul expanded in time towards her surrounding geography, and territorial governance has shaped with planning agenda since 2005. By the year 2015, there is no place in Istanbul called Istanbul. It is the name of the overall spatial and administrative system characterized as a metropolitan area by daily commuting zones. Also, a metropolitan-city officially managed by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality constituted by 39 districts since 2008, and a NUTS2 region according to the Eurostat classification guided by Istanbul Development Agency. Within a decade, an environmental planning agenda pioneered the other planning processes for transport, cultural heritage, coastal zones, tourism, and corporate strategic plans of the metropolitan and district municipalities. Metropolitan management and administrative system of Istanbul as a pilot project, transformed 30 provinces of Turkey in to metropolitan-city model in 2014. Three-step administrative reforms re-structured the provincial scale metropolitan municipality constituted by elected district municipalities without a special provincial administration. Management challenges characterized with new public management, ad hoc and consultocratic processes, outsourcing, privatization and the unique aspect characterized with outsourcing-within. The municipality owned companies linked to the organization has become a new way of getting things done but more importantly supporting the adaptive capacity of the ultra-fast changing economic, legal, administrative frameworks while the environmental, demographic and real estate challenges the metropolitan area with sustainability question. In this decade of 2005 to 2015, the experimental process associated with a pseudo-organization, briefly called IMP, Metropolitan Planning & Urban Design Center, managed by a municipally owned company called BIMTAS. This academics-led process studied various sectors with multi-disciplinary research to provide input for planning agenda. The opportunity to facilitate face-to-face interaction of various levels, departments of local and central governments, private sector, civic society and academia with an ad hoc way happened first time ever at that scale in Turkey. This process characterized with adhocratic organization model turned in to a consultocratic management, and then turned in to a bureaucratic organizational form. Co-existence of those three different modes based project management organization interacting with public, private and civic society actors within the new public management era in the world, creates experimental conditions for understanding the organizational and institutional domains. For instance, by the year 2015, bureaucratic will decided to have an ad hoc technocratic planning unit called IMM atelier in the particular place of adhocratic and consultocratic experience of 2005-2007 era, symbolically replace it. One of the original findings of the thesis is, although the institution building and capacity building components of planning have not defined yet in the case context by 2015, the needs of these two core and essential aspects embedded within the planning projects with latent dimensions. This latency observed at the institutional learning loops, creates further levels of uncertainty especially for the project management aspects. Another finding is about organizational epistemology where dramaturgical sociology perspective makes sense for the case study. The creation, maintenance, and destruction of common understandings of reality by people working individually and collectively to present a shared and unified image of that reality is crystal-clearly explaining the pseudo-organization of IMP. Although IMP has not established formally, due to the organizational cultural and dramaturgical settings, it has perceived by almost all actors interacted as it is established. This pseudo-establishment, the dual structure of existence and non-existence only occurs in the sub–atomic world and characterized with the famous theoretical experiment called Schrödinger's Cat in particle physics. The findings on feedback mechanism of planning processes associated with three dimensions. First is vertical feedback named as double-loop inter-scale among different scales of planning experienced. Second is horizontal feedback named as double-loop inter-region where one region's process provides input to the neighbor region's and then feedback the region's planning process. Third is tertiary-loop inter-plan feedback among different types of plans that are logically interrelated. In order to have a well-functioning system within existing and dynamic legal frameworks, these three dimension of feedback mechanism needs to work within and among at several times.