Critical Theory, Public Policy, and Planning Practice

Critical Theory, Public Policy, and Planning Practice
Author: John Forester
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1993-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1438403011

Too often attacked as hopelessly abstract, contemporary critical social theory can help us to understand both public policy and its analysis. In this book, John Forester shows how policy analysis, planning, and public administration are thoroughly political communicative practices that subtly and selectively organize public attention. Drawing from Jürgen Habermas's critical communications theory of society, Forester shows how policy developments alter the social infrastructure of society. He provides a clear introduction to critical social theory at the same time that he clarifies the practical and political challenges facing public policy analysts, public managers, and planners working in many fields.

Critical Theory, Public Policy, and Planning Practice

Critical Theory, Public Policy, and Planning Practice
Author: John Forester
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1993-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780791414453

Too often attacked as hopelessly abstract, contemporary critical social theory can help us to understand both public policy and its analysis. In this book, John Forester shows how policy analysis, planning, and public administration are thoroughly political communicative practices that subtly and selectively organize public attention. Drawing from Jürgen Habermas's critical communications theory of society, Forester shows how policy developments alter the social infrastructure of society. He provides a clear introduction to critical social theory at the same time that he clarifies the practical and political challenges facing public policy analysts, public managers, and planners working in many fields.

Planning in the Face of Power

Planning in the Face of Power
Author: John Forester
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 1989
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0520064135

Power and inequality are realities that planners of all kinds must face in the practical world. In 'Planning in the Face of Power', John Forester argues that effective, public-serving planners can overcome the traditional--but paralyzing--dichotomies of being either professional or political, detached and distantly rational or engaged and change-oriented. Because inequalities of power directly structure planning practice, planners who are blind to relations of power will inevitably fail. Forester shows how, in the face of the conflict-ridden demands of practice, planners can think politically and rationally at the same time, avoid common sources of failure, and work to advance both a vision of the broader public good and the interests of the least powerful members of society.

Theory and Practice of Social Planning

Theory and Practice of Social Planning
Author: Alfred J. Kahn
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Total Pages: 361
Release: 1969
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1610443233

Discusses the intellectual processes involved in social planning. Professor Kahn provides critical tools for the analysis of the planning process, and shows what social planning is and can be. Clarifying the major phases in the planning process, he shows how planning can succeed or fail at any one of these stages. He examined planners in their various roles: as "neutral" technicians and as advocates, as representatives of interest groups and as public officials. The book describes both the social aspects of planning and the relationship between social and physical plans.

The Argumentative Turn Revisited

The Argumentative Turn Revisited
Author: Frank Fischer
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2012-06-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 082235263X

Sheds new light on the ways that policy is communicatively created, conveyed, understood, and implemented

Planning Theory for Practitioners

Planning Theory for Practitioners
Author: Michael Brooks
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2019-07-09
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1351177737

This book is recommended reading for planners preparing to take the AICP exam. In this new book, the author bridges the gap between theory and practice. The author describes an original approach-Feedback Strategy-that builds on the strengths of previous planning theories with one big difference: it not only acknowledges but welcomes politics-the bogeyman of real-world planning. Don't hold your nose or look the other way, the author advises planners, but use politics to your own advantage. The author admits that most of the time planning theory doesn't have much to do with planning practice. These ideas rooted in the planner's real world are different. This strategy employs everyday poltiical processes to advance planning, trusts planners' personal values and professional ethics, and depends on their ability to help clients articulate a vision. This volume will encourage not only veteran planners searching for a fresh approach, but also students and recent graduates dismayed by the gap between academic theory and actual practice.

Ethics in Planning

Ethics in Planning
Author: Martin Wachs
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 571
Release: 2017-07-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351311344

Some planners limit discussions of ethics to simple, though important, questions about the propriety of their daily activities. This approach to ethics restricts discussion of professional ethics to the propriety of everyday social and professional relationships. It ignores the broader ethical content of planning practice, methods, and policies. While narrow definitions of ethical behavior can easily preoccupy public officials and professional associations, they divert attention from more profound moral issues.Martin Wachs argues that ethical issues are implicit in nearly all planning decisions. For illustrative and educational reasons, it is useful to divide ethics in planning into four distinct categories. The first category includes the moral implications of bureaucratic practices and rules of behavior regarding clients and supervisors. The second category includes ethical judgments which planners make in exercising their "administrative discretion." More complex, and represented by a third category, are the moral implications of methods and the ethical content of criteria built into planning techniques and models. The final type represents the basic choices which society makes - those inherent in the consideration of major policy alternatives.Ethics in Planning contains a variety of representative papers to capture the current state of thinking. This book will be important as a text for survey classes in professional ethics given by university planning programs. It should also supplement short courses in planning ethics for practicing professionals and provide source materials for discussions of planning ethics sponsored by local chapters of the American Planning Association and similar organizations. It gathers together exemplary and critical works, thus it will also interest individual planners in a field that only continues to grow in recognition and importance.

Making Equity Planning Work

Making Equity Planning Work
Author: Norman Krumholz
Publisher: Temple University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2011-02-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1439907811

Lessons from an experiment in equity planning.

Israeli Planners and Designers

Israeli Planners and Designers
Author: Professor of City and Regional Planning John Forester
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2001-08-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780791450574

In their own words, the stories of the men and women who are the planners, architects, community organizers--the hidden builders--of the modern state of Israel.

Explorations in Planning Theory

Explorations in Planning Theory
Author: Luigi Mazza
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 564
Release: 2017-09-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351520938

What is this thing called planning? What is its domain? What do planners do? How do they talk? What are the limits and possibilities for planning imposed by power, politics, knowledge, technology, interpretation, ethics, and institutional design? In this comprehensive volume, the foremost voices in planning explore the foundational ideas and issues of the profession.Explorations in Planning Theory is an extended inquiry into the practice of the profession. As such, it is a landmark text that defines the field for today's planners and the next generation. As Seymour J. Mandelbaum notes in the introduction, ""the shared framework of these essays captures a pervasive interest in the behavior, values, character, and experience of professional planners at work.""All of the chapters in this volume are written to address arguments that are important in the community of planning theoreticians and are crafted in the language of that community. While many of the contributors included here differ in their styles, the editors note that students, experienced practitioners, and scholars of city and regional planning will find this work illuminating and helpful in their research.