"Constructing the Future in Planning:
A Survey of Theories and Tools"

Dowell Myers and Alicia Kitsuse

Abstract

The future is a long-recognized focus of the urban planning profession, but it has been neglected of late—particularly in the academic community. This article reviews concepts, theories, and tools useful for strengthening a future focus in planning. Core analytical concepts include distinctions among projections, forecasts and plans, and continuities of past, present, and future. Ethical issues center on the tension between an activist shaping of the future and the manipulation of forecasts to support desired plans. Emphasizing representation of the future as an essential means for gaining agreement, the article surveys the practices of visioning, scenario-building, and persuasive storytelling. The conclusion outlines a reinvigorated approach to planning the future that draws upon theories presented.

"Linking Planning Theory and History:
The Case of Development Control"

Raphaël Fischler

Abstract

As a source of collective identity, planning history is valuable for purposes of professional socialization. But it can also provide insights into current dilemmas of planning practice as it explains the origins of institutions and techniques and documents the concerns of planners in earlier generations. This paper highlights the relevance of historical writings, by planning pioneers and by historians, to contemporary planning theory by analyzing how planning pioneers framed public problems and professional discretion in early development regulation. A case-study on the adoption of housing laws in late 19th-century New York City illustrates the benefits that planning theorists, including those working in a communicative perspective, can derive from historical research.

"Rationality Revisited:
Planning Paradigms in a Post-Postmodernist Perspective"

Ernest R. Alexander

Abstract

The historical association between planning and rationality is unquestioned, but postmodernist critiques have raised doubts about the future of rational planning. This review defines and arrays different types of rationality to reveal that rationality is broader and more diverse than the instrumental rationality which has been associated with planning. An integrative framework associates complementary (contingent) planning paradigms with various forms of rationality, to suggest that the association between planning and rationality continues unabated. Discussion should shift from questioning the link between rationality and planning to asking what kinds of planning and rationality particular cases, situations, or contexts demand.

 "Planning and Design as the Manufacture of Transcendence"

Martin H. Krieger

Abstract

The traditions of design—in natural science, computation, theology, architecture, and literature and art—provide models for some aspects of planning. These models are especially concerned with order, coherence, meaning, structure, and judgment, and parallels or homologies among them. They also show how the making of wholeness (the "manufacture of transcendence") is in tension with contingency, fetishism, and failure.

 "Choosing a House: The Relationship Between Dwelling Type,
Perception of Privacy, and Residential Satisfaction"

Linda L. Day

Abstract

This study measures satisfaction of residents in two new, higher-density suburban subdivisions: one of small detached houses on small lots, the other townhouses. The post-occupancy evaluation found that satisfaction with housing does not depend on whether a house is attached or detached and that house design can be more important than site design. Putting more houses on less land makes privacy more difficult to attain, and it may force a trade-off between open space and adequate auto accommodation. The findings support the kind of regulatory flexibility that will allow developers to maintain density levels while allowing residents the space they say they need. Adherence to regulatory standards, however, is not sufficient in evaluating a subdivision proposal. The planner needs to evaluate the location, footprint, and orientation of each dwelling and to take differences in site design into account when determining the amount of off-street parking to mandate.

 "Does Growth Management Matter?
The Effect of Growth Management on Economic Performance"

Arthur C. Nelson and David R. Peterman

Abstract

Growth management attempts to improve the ordering of development to improve outcomes. To taxpayers, growth management promises more efficient delivery of public facilities and services. To developers, growth management promises more certainty. To citizen activists, growth management promises resolution of development problems in advance, instead of on an ad hoc basis. These promises are heroic. Nonetheless, even if only partly successful, communities engaged in growth management should out-perform other communities in overall economic output. This paper evaluates the economic performance of 182 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with 1990 populations between 100,000 and 500,000 over the period 1972 to 1992 with respect to presence or absence of growth management efforts such as urban growth boundaries, urban service limits, and state or regional oversight of local planning. We find a positive association between the presence of growth management and economic performance; communities engaged in growth management realized marginal improvements in economic performance relative to other communities, ceteris paribus.

 "GIS in Land Use Planning:
Lessons from Critical Theory and the Gulf Islands"

Meg Holden

Abstract

Geographic information systems (GIS) assume an increasingly large role in North American land use planning. Although GIS is often promoted as an answer to both democratic and sustainability issues in planning, this paper calls these premises into question and suggests a less ambitious role for GIS technology in the planning process in the new millennium. The contributions of critical theory to conceptions of decision making and action in planning, as well as a case comparison study of government GIS systems and those of community groups in British Columbia’s Gulf Islands are considered. Both strains of argument lead to the conclusion that more than new technology, fresh commitments to communicate and to share planning power and responsibility are needed for more democratic, interactive land use planning.

 "Designing a "Neighborhood Deal" for Urban Sewers:
A Case Study of Semarang, Indonesia"

Dale Whittington, Jennifer Davis, Harry Miarsono, and Richard Pollard

Abstract

The exclusion of neighborhood organizations and households from active participation in the planning process lies at the heart of the current sanitation planning crisis in many cities in developing countries. This paper describes a demand-driven planning approach for urban sewerage, in which neighborhood organizations and households are involved in an active partnership with government planners and other technical staff. We argue that planners must reorient their thinking from city-level master planning toward the neighborhood. This change in focus requires that government officials and planners study household and neighborhood demand for improved water and sanitation services in order to design a deal that municipal and higher-level governments can afford, that is technically feasible, that is attractive to households, and that has public health and environmental benefits. A case study of the sanitation situation in Semarang, Indonesia, illustrates how an innovative set of participatory tools can be used to assess household and neighborhood demand.

 Instruction

"Practice Through a Lens: A Metaphor for Planning Theory"

Neil Harris

 Abstract

The metaphor of planning theory as a lens through which to analyze practice can assist in defining an appropriate role for planning theory. This metaphor is not new to planning, and its previous use by theorists is shown to be both explicit and implicit. The objective of this paper is to consolidate and extend the metaphor of planning theory as a lens, with the primary concern being to provide assistance to planning educators, students, and researchers in approaching planning theory. The lens metaphor is also contended as a useful construct in crafting a sense of community in the face of calls for theoretical diversity in planning theory.

 Comment

"Reflections on the Spatial Mismatch Debate"

Harald Bauder

 Report

"1999 Chester Rapkin Award for Best Article in Volume 18"