Thomas L. Harper - Dialogical Planning in a Fragmented Society

Critically Liberal
Pragmatic
Incremental

THOMAS L. HARPER STANLEY M. STEIN

First published 2006 by Transaction Publishers

Published 2017 by Routledge
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Copyright 2006 by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

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ISBN 13: 978-0-88285-179-2 (pbk)

Stanley M. Stein

Thomas L. Harper

THOMAS L. HARPER is professor in the planning program of the Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary He did graduate work in management at Carnegie-Mellon University and in economics at the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics. He has served as Canadian liaison to the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, was president of the Association of Canadian University Planning Programs (ACUPP), and is currently ACUPPs representative to the Global Planning Education Associations Network. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Planning Education and Research, the biennial Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning, and the annual Canadian Policy and Planning. A member of the Canadian Institute of Planners, he has consulted for government, community, and private-sector clients and has served on boards and committees for numerous community, social service, educational, and church organizations.

STANLEY M. STEIN is Resident Philosopher, Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary. He holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Calgary In collaboration with Thomas Harper, he has published widely on the practical implications of philosophical and ethical aspects of planning theory, the ethical and economic justifications of government intervention, environmental ethics, and social institutions. In collaboration with other colleagues, he has published work on theories of aesthetics and design as well as architecture theory. Stein has developed an interdisciplinary philosophy of environmental design based on the recognition that all beliefs and concepts are historically contingent: they arise and evolve in response to new issues and problems. Stein maintains that new problems and crises facing society in a contemporary world require reconceptualization of old categories, descriptions, and ways of thinking to generate a new interdisciplinary approach to theory and practice. In this regard, he and his colleagues have worked to apply a neopragmatic approach to the challenges of the twenty-first century. Dr. Stein serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Planning Education and Research.

I
Planning Should Give Up The Modernist Paradigm

1
The Crisis in Modernist Planning

2
Modernistic (Rational) Planning

II
Planning Should Be Pragmatic

3
Two Responses to Modernism: Postmodernism or Neopragmatism

4
Out of the Postmodern Abyss: Postmodernist Themes

III
Planning Should Be Critically Liberal

5
Classical Liberalism and Planning

6
A Critical Liberal Perspective

7
Pragmatic Incrementalist Planning

IV
Planning Should Recognize An Emerging Way

8
A Dialogical Planning Approach

9
A Dialogical Planning Approach: Critiques and Questions

10
Dialogical Planning in Practice

V
Planning Should Avoid Modernist and Postmodernist Traps

11
The Search for Clear Categories and Universal Principles

12
The Radical Paradigm Shift

13
The Multicultural Trap (Relativism)

14
The Rejection of Theory

15
Power, Trust, and Planning

16
Conclusion: Key Strengths of Dialogical Planning

This book is the culmination of a critical study of a certain conception of philosophy and its application to planning. The conception of philosophy that links the various chapters is based on what can be referred to as neopraginatism, an approach that has been best expressed or implied in the writing of Hilary Putnam, Richard Rorty, and, in particular, Donald Davidson, John Rawls, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The following chapters flow from philosopher Stanley Steins examination of neopragmatism and his thinking about how this philosophical approach can be useful in the field of environmental designspecifically, how it can be applied to planning procedures and problems. Thomas Harper provided the context for this theoretical application from his academic background in economics and management as well as his practical experience with political decision-making processes, community planning, and economic development, to illustrate the various approaches examined.

The result is a fresh synthesis of ideasa new approach to thinking about planning theory and its implications for, and relationship with, practice. Philosopher Michael Walzer (1987,136) has asserted that Philosophy reflects and articulates the political culture of its time, and politics presents and enacts the arguments of philosophy.... Similarly, the authors view planning theory as planning reflected upon in tranquillity, away from the tumult of battle, and planning practice as planning theory acted out in the confusion of the trenches. Each changes the other in a dynamic way. The authors hope is that this book will demonstrate the intimate and inextricable link between them.

Many of the chapters in this book incorporate material from earlier publications:

Portions of contain material revised from T. L. Harper and S. M. Stein (1992), The centrality of normative ethical theory to contemporary planning theory Journal of Planning Education and Research 11, 2: 105-16. 1992 Sage Publications. Used by permission of Sage Publications, Inc.

Portions of contain material revised from T. L. Harper and S. M. Stein (1995), Out of the post-modern abyss: Preserving the rationale for liberal planning. Journal of Planning Education and Research 14,4: 233-44. 1995 Sage Publications. Used by permission of Sage Publications, Inc.

Portions of contain material revised from T. L. Harper and S. M. Stein (1995), Out of the post-modern abyss: Preserving the rationale for liberal planning. Journal