Adaptive and anti-adaptive neighbourhoods: Investigating the relationship between individual choice and systemic adaptability

Ian Carter and Stefano Moroni
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Ian Carter: University of Pavia, Italy

Environment and Planning B, 2022, vol. 49, issue 2, 722-736

Abstract: Recent work on ‘anti-adaptive’ neighbourhoods has highlighted a number of common features, including scale of design, number of designers, mono-functionality, percentage of public space, planning rules and system of ownership. This article aims to provide a more general conceptual analysis of adaptability and anti-adaptability in terms of degrees of individual choice, where an individual’s choice set is understood as a combination of individual freedoms, both physical and normative, and of individual normative powers. Individual choice is constitutive of adaptability, and its ‘non-specific’ value helps to explain why adaptability is itself seen in a positive light. Thus, the article points to a potentially unifying explanatory factor that can help us to better understand the various common features of anti-adaptive neighbourhoods highlighted in the recent literature. The final part of the article discusses some of the implications of this reasoning for policy and design.

Keywords: Freedom; anti-adaptive neighbourhoods; individual choice; adaptability; complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirb:v:49:y:2022:i:2:p:722-736

DOI: 10.1177/23998083211025542

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