| Resumo: | Based on an analytical framework derived as much from institutional theory as from the theory of urban planning, this study examines the results of two programs created to re-establish order and stability after a situation of urban crisis. They include: the Program for the Renovation of Low-Income Housing in Mexico City, created after the 1985 earthquake, and the Ghost Town Program founded in Los Angeles, California, after the 1994 earthquake. Both programs have been praised for their swift action, massive financing, improvement of pre-existing conditions, community participation and institutional coordination. The principal argument in this study is that urban planning institutions in both cities were effective during the crisis caused by the earthquakes mainly because they were based on institutional routes: a type of procedure that is often scorned or underestimated because it has the reputation of being extremely bureaucratic. The planning institutions in Mexico City and Los Angeles responded effectively because they were capable of adapting institutional routines quickly and efficiently to dramatic, unforeseen circumstances. Framed as a case study, this analysis seeks to clarify and explain the dynamics of urban planning within a context of crisis in two ways; first, case studies show that an explicit, systematic institutional analysis helps explain what features yield positive results in urban planning and why. Second, institutional analysis shows the conditions under which institutional routines can serve as powerful, effective tools for resolving unforeseen circumstances, regardless of the prevailing socio-political context.
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