ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING
Forester, J. (1989) Planning in the Face of Power, Berkeley,
CA: University of California press.
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If they [planners] to recognize how their ordinary actions have subtle
communicative effects, they will be counterproductive, even though they
may mean well. They may be sincere but mistrusted, rigorous but unappreciated,
reassuring yet resented. Where they intend to help, planners may instead
create dependency; and where they intend to express good faith, they may
raise expectations unrealistically, with disastrous consequences. 138
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When planners recognize the practical and communicative nature of their
actions, they can devise strategies to avoid these problems and to improve
their practice as well. 139
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Planners do much more than describe, of course. They warn others
of problems,
present information, suggest new ideas, agree
to perform certain tasks or to meet at certain times, argue for or against
particular efforts, report relevant events, offer opinions
and advice, and comment on ideas and proposals for action.
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Mutual understanding depends on the satisfaction of these four criteria:
comprehensibility, sincerity, legitimacy, and accuracy or truth. 142
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Planners staff must learn to anticipate the practical effects both of the
class based communicative actions and practical arguments of others, and
of their own argumentative practices as well. 143
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The context of what a planner says is defined by the historical,
political, and social relations that provide the planners with a stage
from which to speak from the first place. 145-6
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Only in the most isolated or most routine cases will future-oriented planning
problems be resolved by a technical planner acting alone. 152
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The most well-meaning technical planning activities have at times communicated,
if unintentionally, that planning is the exclusive domain of the planner…153
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It has worked to separate planners and planned for; it has made information
less accessible to those affected by plans; it has minimized planners'
abilities to learn from project review criticism; and it has generated
public mistrust in planning staff and reinforced planners' apprehensions
that public participation will inevitably be disruptive. 153
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What planners choose to say--and choose not to say--is politically crucial.
153
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Planners must assess encompassing power structures and recognize how their
own actions can work either to discourage or to encourage citizen organizing.
155
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By treating planning practice as a communicative action, we are given a
conceptual (and researchable) bridge from analysis to implementation (via
the shaping of attention), from information organization (via the shaping
and reproduction of political identity), from cognition to action (via
the claims-making structure of communicative action), and thus from the
analysis of abstract meaning to a pragmatic assessment of practical professional
activity. 157
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A critical communicative account of planning practice seeks not only to
integrate analyses of action and structure but also to combine empirical
and interpretive research with normative and ethical arguments that help
us counteract the obstacles to democratic and legitimate planning processes.
161
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This is the contribution of critical planning theory: pragmatics with vision--to
reveal true alternatives, to correct false expectations, to counter cynicism,
to foster inquiry, to spread political responsibility, engagement, and
action. Critical planning practice, technically skilled and politically
sensitive, is simultaneously and organizing and democratizing practice.
162