Transcript Planning Theory

Planning Theory
• Theory is a way of understanding the
world, a framework for our interpretation of
facts and experience.
• Theory has to be applied
• Praxis: it distinguishes itself from practice
as a self-critical activity that recognizes
that external world, including the
practitioner, is the product of previous
human interactions
CP 101 Introduction to City Planning – Prof. H. Alshuwaikhat
• Planning, unlike the sciences, is ultimately
a prescriptive, not a descriptive activity.
The planner’s aim is not to describe the
world as it is, but rather to propose ways in
which things can be changed.
• Their evaluations require a standard of
reference, an explanation or model of the
planning process, in short, a theory.
CP 101 Introduction to City Planning – Prof. H. Alshuwaikhat
The Scope of Planning Theory
• No consensus on a definition of planning theory
• Design profession: the concepts of utopianism
and comprehensiveness; the rational for making
better environment and tools for building it.
• Economists: equity and the public interests,
decision analysis and public aggregation of
values
• Psychologists, sociologists and political
scientists: ways choices are made and
implemented by individuals, groups and
organizations and societies
CP 101 Introduction to City Planning – Prof. H. Alshuwaikhat
• Planning theory is capable of addressing a
whole range of issues
• Definition: what is planning?
• Substantive: what do we know about what
we are planning, and whom we are
planning for?
• Normative: how to plan, and what is the
rational for planning?
CP 101 Introduction to City Planning – Prof. H. Alshuwaikhat
• The core of planning theory is the planning process. How
do people plan?
• Planning theory examines the components of he
planning process: their nature, sequence, and the
relationship to the context of the process and its output
• Planning theory involves the rationale for planning, which
in turn raises some questions about planner’s ethics and
values
• Planning theory and the question of legitimacy, what
entitles the planner to plan for others and, by implication,
to make decisions and choices of others?
CP 101 Introduction to City Planning – Prof. H. Alshuwaikhat