Silences and saliencies: how an airport becomes (in)visible

1. Silences and saliencies: how an airport becomes (in)visible José Reis Tiago Santos Pereira 4th CES International Seminar on the Foundations of Economics Value Conflict, Decision Making and Public Action 15 and 16 june 2012

2. 0. The main debates on big infrastructural projects in Portugal in the last decades Two of them: - A new airport in Lisbon (a discussion started in the 60' and reopen in the 90') - An high speed train in the European transport networks

3. 1. Deliberation on big public infrastructures: of course a collective and political deliberation… • How objectives were formulated • What influences were considered (external economies of the deliberation) • How the main constraints were formulated • Who participates in the process

4. 2. Infrastructures for mobility (airport or high speed train): three main points for consideration • Urban planning: the design of the main forms of articulation of a country (both internal and external); a decision on the localizations that will be priorities for differential growth and development • Land rent: in what localization rents will be maximized; what new mechanisms will be available for differential rents • Infrastructural articulation: how a concrete project will improve the consistence of the general network

6. 3. The first formulation of objectives, influences and constraints for the new airport • An urban context for the project: a territory between metropolitan areas and urban density • A context of urban planning: a program on the public policies for the territory (PNPOT) • A network of infrastructures for mobility (preexistent railway infrastructures; joint decision with new high speed line; preexistent highway network) • Environmental impact assessment

7. 4. An abrupt reversion of the previous formulation of the project and the context for deliberation (2009) • A process of deliberation reopen with a new agenda of criterions • An arbitrage between two singles alternatives • The intervention of a new “independent”, “technical”, “third part” (vs. existing earlier separate technical reports) • A “value free” and flat scale to “deduce” de decision with the dominance of a cost-benefit analysis

8. 5.The seven topics for the decision -security, efficiency and capacity of air trafic operations; -sustainability of natural resources and risks; -biodiversity and nature conservation; - land transport systems and accessibilities; - territorial planning; - competitiveness and socio-economic development; -financial assessment

9. 6. The new, “value free”, decision: is it really value free? • An airport articulated with a metropolitan area and disarticulated with a large and wider urban system • A new direction for metropolitan consolidation (territorial planning emerging differently as a ‘contrary’ argument – national vs regional approach) • A new big hardware: a more complex system to cross the Tagus river (a new source for monopoly rents) • Is the delegation of the decision to a technical committee, in an already controversial issue, a neutral process? (Cf. participatory turn in socio-technical controversies)

10. 7. Conclusion • An airport for the reconfiguration of the urban system without political deliberation of explicit framework • A deep process of production and appropriation of land rent • A new landscape for differential valorization of land: localization of new equipments and urban expansion and consolidation • A new valorization of projects thought as diffused and now putted in a closer localization of urban and metropolitan concentration • A technical committee as a closing strategy for the decision