Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is rooted in science and technology studies. As a method for doing in-depth research it has now been used in other areas of science as well. ANT does focus on the connections that are being made and remade between human and non-human entities that are part of the issue at stake. It goes beyond the borders that are usually set: ANT does not stop the investigation when it enters contexts or so called ‘underlying structures’. Tracing back connections can be done by (participatory) observation, document analysis or in-depth interviews.

Tussen 2006 en 2011 schreef ik aan mijn proefschrift over de implementatie van beleid bij woningcorporaties. Op basis van documentenstudies en interviews met alle mogelijke betrokken - van bewoners tot directeuren - reconstrueerde ik de uitvoeringsprocessen bij vier woningcorporaties.

Due to a change in regulations in the 1990s, Dutch housing associations have become much more independent from government policies. As a result they have to formulate their own strategic goals on how to deal with their properties. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether Bruno Latour's due process model can be of help to housing associations implementing their strategies. In his Political Ecology, Latour (2004) has presented the due process model as a model through which new plans or ideas can be realised in society. In the case of housing management, measures from the management strategy should be implemented. Following McMaster, Vidgen & Wastell (1998), I will apply the due process retrospectively. To this end, a case study was conducted at a Dutch housing association.

Due to change in regulations in the 1990s Dutch housing associations have become much more independent from government policies. As a result they have to formulate their own strategic goals on how they want to deal with their properties. Several models have been proposed to set up housing management strategies. At this time a huge number of social housing associations have developed a long-term strategy for their housing stock. This paper focuses on how these strategy goals are implemented inside and outside the organisations of housing associations in the Netherlands. The paper presents results from an in-depth case study at a Dutch housing association. Actor Network Theory (ANT) was used to guide the research method. From that point of view the research is very much grounded in the documents and interviews from the fieldwork. For ANT the connections between the details in the case together build the whole. The establishing of these connections can be done through different instruments. The paper will conclude that especially municipal cooperation is very important during the implementation process. In order to connect the relevant actors and factors to the implementation of the housing management plan, the paper will indicate the instruments that were used by the housing association in this case study.

Het geloof in de maakbare samenleving was ook in de theorie over ruimtelijke planning in de jaren '60 en '70 van de vorige eeuw op zijn hoogtepunt. Sindsdien is het denken over planologie langzaam maar zeker opgeschoven naar een meer bescheiden opstelling. Toch blijven wetenschappers in de planologie zich graag bezighouden met theorie die erop gericht is de praktijk te veranderen. Rijke verhalen over hoe planningsprocessen daadwerkelijk zijn verlopen worden vaak door sociologen en bestuurskundigen geschreven. Dit artikel is een poging om de Actor Netwerk Theorie, een theorie uit de sociologie, binnen het domein van de planoloog te trekken.

Due to change in regulations in the mid 1990's Dutch social landlords have become much more independent from government policies. As a result they have to formulate their own strategic goals on how they want to deal with their properties. At the moment not much is known about how these goals are implemented in organisations of social landlords in The Netherlands. In the paper I will explore some theoretical viewpoints derived from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) that can help to understand processes of strategy implementation. Actor-Network Theory has been developed by Bruno Latour, Michel Callon and John Law. The existence of interaction between humans and non-humans is the central assumption on which it is based. Through interaction networks are built. Strategies begin as rather small networks (e.g. an idea of one of the participants in a meeting). They then try to become bigger and stronger networks. For example by being attached to a specific budget. The more relations there are the stronger the network is. As Actor-Network Theory states, making a reconstruction of the process can shed some more light on the substance of these relations. In the paper I will also give some first results about such a reconstruction of the implementation processes in two cases at a small social housing company in The Netherlands.

Since the late 1990s critical theory has been criticized more and more. Being the most important fundament for communicative or collaborative planning theory this may mean that we have to look for other philosophical fundamentals to underpin an alternative theory on spatial planning. Even better is to talk about spatial change because also the word planning itself is contested. In this thesis I try to formulate the fundamentals of an alternative theory on spatial change which meets the criticism on contemporary critical theory and communicative and collaborative planning. Therefore it is necessary to find out which philosophical fundamentals meet the criticism on Habermas’ critical theory, and how they can be translated into a theory on spatial change. To reach this goal I have done literature research on the work of both philosophers and planning theorists.