‘Time’ as a focus for planning research: exploring temporalities of coastal change

‘Time’ is a taken-for-granted backdrop for most planning research. However, a nascent body of work suggests the need for greater sensitivity to the influence of time in stimulating views on what ‘is’ happening and ‘should be’ done about it. This paper extends such work by exploring how temporalities shape interpretations of reality in ways that can profile thinking and action. To achieve this, the paper mobilises the ‘assemblage theory’ of Deleuze and Guattari to facilitate an analysis of how signification and significance is constituted in the context of planning for change. A case study of coastal erosion is used to empirically explore the role of temporalities in contouring ontological, epistemological and normative perspectives. The analysis demonstrates that temporalities can be plural – and consequently political – in planning debates. This is important for planning research and practice as it suggests that attempting to appreciate diverging viewpoints in the absence of attention to different temporalities limits the capacity for understanding, and as such, curtails the feasibility of finding resolution to contentious planning issues.

时间在绝大多数规划研究中均被视作理所当然的背景性前提。然而，新兴的研究脉络表明，学界亟需提升对时间影响力的敏感度——这种影响力会塑造人们对"当下正在发生之事"的认知，以及针对该事件应采取的行动方案。本文就此展开拓展性研究，探讨时间性以何种路径塑造对现实的阐释，进而影响思维模式与行动选择。为达成这一研究目标，本文运用德勒兹与瓜塔里提出的"装配理论（assemblage theory）"，以分析变革规划语境下意义表征与重要性的建构机制。本文以海岸侵蚀为案例开展实证研究，借以剖析时间性在塑造本体论、认识论与规范性视角中所扮演的核心角色。分析结果表明，在规划议题的讨论中，时间性可以是多元的——也正因如此，其具备政治性维度。这一发现对规划研究与实践均具有重要意义：它揭示出，若忽视不同时间性视角而试图理解多元分歧观点，将限制理解的深度与广度，进而削弱解决争议性规划议题的可行性。