Culturised planning practices in urban megaproject development: the case of Lincoln Yards in Chicago

Regardless of the socio-spatial setting, urban megaprojects exhibit similar features, such as architectural and urban design that neglects place identity, on the one hand, and economic actors seeking exceptional local deregulation mechanisms, on the other. As dominant developers tend to override the concerns of local authorities, citizens, and planning professionals, a multitude of conflicting interests is entrenched in any large-scale development. Hence, to understand the process of megaproject development requires attending to both procedural instruments (rules and regulations) and the deep-rooted factors (underlying beliefs, values, and fundamental societal orientations), which together form a planning culture. Using planning culture as the core analytical object and employing a multi-layered conceptual framework grounded in sociological institutionalism, this paper examines the Lincoln Yards case, a contemporary Chicago urban megaproject, analysing individual attitudes, collective practices, and societal environment as three interrelated cultural layers. The framework traces the following variables: professional argumentation and non-expert cognitive frames (‘ways of thinking’); stakeholders' values, (joint) visions and mutual trust; people's behaviour and routine actions; the nature of the planning approach; power relations in stakeholders' interactions; and societal ideological orientations. The study demonstrates how these cultural layers operate simultaneously as a broader institutional context and a constitutive force shaping planning outcomes, revealing the analytical value of a culturally informed approach to understanding megaproject development in both research and practice.