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Naja MAROT 

How complex is society really? Review of Kompleksna družba v radikalni sredini (Complex Society in the Radical Middle) 
Title: Kompleksna družba v radikalni sredini (Complex Society in the Radical Middle) Authors: Bojan Radej, Mojca Golobič and Mirna Macur Reviewers: Darko Štrajn, Aleksander Aristovnik and Pavel Gantar Foreword: Srečo Dragoš Publisher: Department of Landscape Architecture, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana Place and year of publication: Ljubljana, December 2012 
Number of pages: 240 [ISBN 978-961-6833-05-9] 
In December 2012, the University of Ljubljana’s Biotechnical Faculty pub­lished a book titled Kompleksna družba v radikalni sredini (Complex Society in the Radical Middle) in conjunction with the Slovenian Evaluation Society. This book studies society from a dif­ferent perspective and focuses on the complexity of society and its evaluation. The authors describe complexity in two ways or along two axes. The first one is horizontal and, according to it, vari­ous social stakeholders have completely legitimate – but also different – visions of what is good for the community as a whole. An example of this is modern social concepts that combine elements that oppose one another in terms of content and interest; for instance, sus­tainable development and spatial cohe­sion. The second, vertical axis indicates the contrast between collective and in­dividual levels of evaluating social mat­ters, or between the incompatibility of findings at different levels of treatment. In simplified terms, what a local com­munity recognizes as good for itself is not necessarily also recognized by the state; or, from the perspective of an in­dividual’s relationship to the wider so­ciety, “what is good for an individual or a narrow community is not necessarily good for the wider community” (p. 17). 
In order to overcome this problem, which can have a negative effect on the results of evaluating policies and regula­tions and potentially turn measures in an unwanted or an even less cost-effec­tive direction, the authors suggest the adoption of a new innovative meso-ap­proach. They first present this approach methodologically, and then use several examples to demonstrate its applica­bility. They first address and evaluate the achievement of spatial cohesion, which is also one of the EU develop­ment goals, and then go on to evaluate the effectiveness of the public sector based on the self-evaluation of public administration bodies, also known as the common evaluation framework. In the fifth chapter, the Mura Valley region is selected to demonstrate how modern policies usually specify measures unilat­erally in order to meet their priorities, while not taking into account potential side effects that can often be at odds. Judging from the analyses, this proves to be most detrimental to social capital, which is excluded from economic and environmental-spatial measures. 
The last chapter revisits new social con­cepts and their names, all of which are aimed at a comprehensive understand­ing of society and social phenomena. These are terms such as synthesis, syner­gy, integration, cohesion, balance, sustain­ability, harmony, and excellence. They are used often, but reflecting on their meaning within the social context can 
Reviews and information 

often be puzzling. The authors find an umbrella term for them: “meso-think­ing” or “meso-society”, which has been used for quite some time now, but has largely been ignored. They specify its main characteristics: the exchange of opinions and internal evaluation scores leads to the creation of collective and uniform elements; the procedural evalu­ation that constantly takes place in the middle between two poles, between the cause and effect, factors and results, po­tential and needs; and the dual synthe­sis procedure that ensures an objective summary. As one of the radical effects of taking this kind of approach, the authors mention the lack of a need for the macroeconomic approach because the “truth” – or a more reliable truth – can also be learned differently. 
The book’s cover illustrates the unre­vealed and complex world of connec­tions between the “fractals” of society, and in a way also the fact that its rep­resentatives are caught inside specific concepts and beliefs. With its exten­sive list of citations and with practical illustrations and tests, this book seeks to demonstrate that there can also be a different perspective on society – one that we have not even thought about until now. 
Naja Marot Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana E-mail: naja.marot@uirs.si 
Urbani izziv, volume 24, no. 1, 2013 

Reviews and information 173 



Citations from the book: 

In evaluating social matters, it is extremely important to distinguish between the truth and the good. Not only because they are con­stantly interconnected, but also and especially because they do not match at all, at least in and of themselves. (p. 18) 
Macroeconomists will take this [definition of primary goals and measures at the meso-level] as heresy, and that is also what it is because for nearly a century their indisputable mission has been to ensure macro-balance. From a meso-perspective, the times of macroeconomics in the old sense are irrevocably over. This task is now handed over to the bearers of asymmetrical values at the meso-level. (p. 192) 
Those that truly wish to make a contribution in complex conditions must – due to the nature of the challenge rather than moral considerations, and for completely (multilaterally) rationally substantiated grounds – first acknowledge their sacrifice and withdraw to the edges of their comprehensive efforts. (p. 194) 


Review of Orodja za usmerjanje in nadzor urbanih oblik (Tools for Directing and Controlling Urban Forms) 
Title: Orodja za usmerjanje in nadzor urbanih oblik (Tools for Directing and Controlling Urban Forms) Author: Kaliopa Dimitrovska Andrews Reviewers: Breda Mihelič and Fedja Košir Publisher: Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia Series: Urbani izziv – publikacije Place and year of publication: Ljubljana, 2012 
Number of pages: 102 [ISBN 978-961-6390-31-6] 
The tools for directing and controlling urban forms are specified in great detail in the applicable Slovenian spatial plan­ning legislation. However, the majority of them are rarely successfully imple­mented in planning the living environ­ment. There are numerous reasons for this, from political to economic ones, including poor understanding of the legal provisions and a lack of profes­sionalism. Therefore, for quite some time now there has been a need in Slovenian planning practice to deter­mine the impacts of planning decisions on the development of physical struc­tures in greater detail and to establish which elements of the development of physical structures should be directed and controlled from the viewpoint of protecting the cityscape and individual values of the local urban environment. This seems especially important today because in line with the sustainable de­velopment paradigm it is the growth of cities “inwards” (i.e., into the urban fabric) that is being planned, including the expansion, renewal and (re)urbani­zation of construction land. 
In her book, Kaliopa Dimitrovska Andrews studies planning legislation in countries with a developed market economy and engages in an in-depth interdisciplinary discussion on the aes­thetics of the built environment in order to define the basic urban-design crite­ria that are important for the aesthetic development of cities. She develops a methodological framework for direct­ing and evaluating the quality of urban design and the effectiveness of spatial plans. She classifies the urban-design criteria according to the role they play at individual planning levels (general and local) and the complexity of an in­dividual location (from the supervision of the urban plan to architectural de­tails). Many of these design criteria are important for the general layout of the city or urban area, the local composition and the architectural design of a struc­ture. Andrews substantiates the use of the methodological framework for di­recting and evaluating the quality of ur­ban design in practice based on two case studies of Ljubljana. In the first case, the method is used as a tool for directing the “reurbanization of a degraded area” (i.e., former military barracks in the Poljane neighbourhood) and, in the second, as a tool for evaluating the urban-design quality of examples of the “internal development of settlements” (i.e., the Trnovski Pristan Condominium and the Gradaška apartment building). 

Using text and illustration, and based on an extensive selection of research and scholarly literature, this book il­lustrates the impact of these criteria on the development of physical structures within cities. In addition, it includes a concise study on the role of aesthetics in the history of city planning and design 
Urbani izziv, volume 24, no. 1, 2013