Delivered by Ingenta to: ? IP: 100.15.198.19 On: Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:47:49 Copyright: Henry Stewart Publications INTRODUCTION For some decades, abandoned industrial sites and their historic architecture have been some of the great challenges facing heritage conservation, as well as urban development, planning, and design.Various actors put forward different concepts and objectives, which in turn have lead to conflicts over the management of industrial heritage. It is assumed, first, that concepts and objectives, and also inherent assumptions and values, can be framed in 54 Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal Vol. 9, 1, 54–64  Henry Stewart Publications 1752-9646 (2015) Exploring urban transformations: Synchronic discourse analysis in the field of heritage conservation and urban development Received (in revised form): 28th September, 2014 Heike Oevermann is a researcher in urban and heritage studies. She works at the Georg-Simmel-Center for Metropolitan Studies at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, where she is coordinating a three-year research project on industrial heritage sites in Europe (DFG). Harald A. Mieg has conducted research on sustainable urban development, metropolisation, and innovation. Currently, he is responsible for the implementation of undergraduate research at the University of Applied Sciences, Potsdam. Abstract Historic industrial sites and their buildings present new challenges for heritage conservation as well as for urban development. Their transformation invokes conflicts between different concepts and objectives. This paper investigates whether and how transformation and conflicts can be analysed by a research instrument used in the social sciences: discourse analysis. It is presumed that the concepts and objectives of the various planning agents involved as well as the inherent core statements and values can be understood as discourses. Different discourses — as the term is used in the social sciences — clash with planning practice and trigger conflicts. The authors assume that these conflicts are based on differences in values. A case study examines the transformation since the late 1980s of the former Zollverein coal mine and coking plant in Essen, Germany. The results of this synchronic discourse analysis indicate approaches to an integrated planning practice. A version of this paper was previously published in German: ‘Städtische Transformationen erforschen: Die Diskursanalyse im Bereich Denkmalschutz und Stadtentwicklung’, Forum Stadt, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 319–325 (2012). It was produced in the framework of a DFG research project (2011–2014, MI 788/4-1,2, in collaboration with TU Berlin, Prof. J. Cramer). Copyright is given by Forum Stadt. Keywords: Urban transformations, industrial heritage sites, urban development, heritage conservation, synchronic discourse analysis Heike Oevermann Georg-Simmel-Zentrum für Metropolenforschung, Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany E-mail: heike.oevermann@ gsz.hu-berlin.de