The planning of Greater Amman: migrants to migrant capital
Abstract
Purpose
Close inspection of some of the more intricate details of the two most recent planning efforts, the award-winning Amman Plan 2025 and the strategic master plan known as the Amman Development Corridor Study (ADC), particularly in their most direct area of overlap, that is, the Metropolitan Growth Strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
Study and interpretation of published documents relevant to the plans in question.
Findings
The study reveals that the emerging objectives of accommodating migrant capital within the context of state-wide neo-liberal restructuring, particularly at the city’s eastern and south-eastern edge, have yet to benefit from recent scholarship on productive suburbanization.
Research limitations/implications
Lack of data on Foreign Direct Investment in Amman.
Practical implications
The results have implications for the future urban growth scenario of Greater Amman.
Social implications
Informal (illegal) building on the fringes of the city continues unabated. It is encouraged by permissive planning practice, a long-standing aspect of local practice dating to the 1970s. The longer that planning action lags, particularly at the eastern fringes, the more intense will be the informal building, and the higher the prospects for social conflict.
Originality/value
There has been only one, rather uncritical, published research on the Amman Plan, but none so far discussing the ADC study and its proposals.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to acknowledge the discussions with members of the ADC Study team, particularly, Kingsley Robotham (ADC Study Team Leader), Penti Murole (senior planner, WSP). Acknowledgement goes also to Andrea Marpillero-Colomina from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, for a discussion about the Amman Plan during her brief fact-finding mission on behalf of Columbia University’s Middle Eastern Research Center in Amman. I would also like to acknowledge discussions with Anas Qattan, former Planning Advisor to the mayor of Amman.
Citation
Abu-Dayyeh, N. (2024), "The planning of Greater Amman: migrants to migrant capital", Archnet-IJAR, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARCH-03-2024-0079
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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