Title:
Planning theory : from the political debate to the methodological reconstruction
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
New York , NY : Springer, 2008
Physical Description:
xi, 125 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
ISBN:
9788847006959
Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010169256 | HT166 A72 2008 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
Planning Theory expresses a sound unease about the direction taken by the current analysis and criticism of planning experiences. To oppose the debate that freezes planning as a permanently declining engagement, this book aims to identify the essential guidelines of a re-launch of planning processes and techniques, configuring a kind of neo-discipline. This builds upon a multi-disciplinary integration - never seen and experimented with until now.
Author Notes
Professor of Planning (in several Italian Universities, and lastly at the Postgraduate School of Public Administration, Rome; President of the Planning Studies Centre, Rome).
He has been consultant of many international institutions (UNDP, UNESCO, UN-ECE, UNEP, OECD, European Union, Council of Europe and others) and of the Italian Government.
Author of some books in economics and planning, which have had international audience within the scientific community, like The Associative Economy (Macmillan, 2000), The Ecological City (Ashgate, 1997), Economy and Ecology (co-ed., Kluwer, 1992), and others.
Table of Contents
| 1 Planning Theory: Reconstruction or Requiem? | p. 1 |
| 1.1 A Certain Uneasiness about "Planning Theory" | p. 1 |
| 1.2 Have We Improved the Clarity of Planning Methodology? | p. 2 |
| 1.3 What Are the Reasons for the Deceiving Development of Planning Theory? | p. 4 |
| 1.3.1 The Equivocal Case of the "Substantive" Side of Planning Theory | p. 5 |
| 1.3.2 Expanding the Scope Too Much | p. 6 |
| 1.3.3 Expanding the Terrain and the Roots | p. 8 |
| 1.3.4 The Lack of Relationship with "Substantive" Planning | p. 10 |
| 1.4 Planning Theory: General or Not? | p. 11 |
| 1.5 A Vade-Mecum for Good Planners' Professional Relations? | p. 12 |
| 1.6 Deontology and Epistemology of the Profession | p. 14 |
| 2 In Search of Integration: The Past Negative Experience | p. 17 |
| 2.1 Expectations and Results from the Integration of the Planning Sciences | p. 17 |
| 2.1.1 Macro-Economic Planning in Europe | p. 18 |
| 2.1.2 Strategic Management and Planning in the Public Sector | p. 19 |
| 2.1.3 Integrated Regional Planning | p. 19 |
| 2.1.4 Integrated Approach in Academic Journals | p. 19 |
| 2.2 The Bad Course of the Debate | p. 21 |
| 2.3 Is a Positive Reconstruction of Planning Theory Possible? | p. 22 |
| 3 Towards a New Unified Discipline of Planning | p. 25 |
| 3.1 The Fields of Activity | p. 25 |
| 3.1.1 Physical Planning | p. 25 |
| 3.1.2 Macro-Economic Planning | p. 26 |
| 3.1.3 Social Planning | p. 28 |
| 3.1.4 Development Planning | p. 29 |
| 3.1.5 Operational Planning | p. 31 |
| 3.2 The Merits and Limits of the Trans-Disciplinary Approach | p. 34 |
| 3.2.1 Merits | p. 34 |
| 3.2.2 Limits | p. 35 |
| 3.3 "Positivist"-Type Decision-Making Analysis | p. 35 |
| 3.4 Social Reality is Subjective Reality | p. 36 |
| 3.5 "Voluntarist"-Type Decision-Making Analysis | p. 37 |
| 3.6 A Defect of Approach or One of Further Elaboration? | p. 38 |
| 4 The First Routes of the New Discipline | p. 41 |
| 4.1 Schemes of Procedure for the Preparation of Plans and the Construction of Suitable "Accounting Frames" | p. 42 |
| 4.2 Schemes of the Systemic Interrelationship Between Plan Levels | p. 43 |
| 4.3 Institutional Procedures of "Plan Bargaining" and Preference Consultation Systems | p. 44 |
| 4.4 Information Systems for Planning and Their Management | p. 45 |
| 4.5 Monitoring and Plan Evaluation Systems | p. 46 |
| 5 Some Integrative Topics of the New Planning Discipline | p. 47 |
| 5.1 Integration Between (Conventional) Economic Accounting Systems and Social Accounting Systems | p. 48 |
| 5.2 Integration Between Socio-Economic Planning (and Related Accounting) and Technological Forecasting | p. 49 |
| 5.3 Integration Between Socio-Economic Planning (and Related Accounting) and Physical (or Territorial or Environmental) Planning | p. 50 |
| 5.4 Integration Between Socio-Economic (and Physical) Planning and Institutional Organisation and Negotiation | p. 50 |
| 5.5 Integration Between Socio-Economic Planning and the Institutional System and Design | p. 51 |
| 5.6 Concluding Remarks: The "Planological Approach" | p. 52 |
| 6 Planning Science: Basic Postulates and Logical Framework for Reference | p. 55 |
| 6.1 From Planning "Theory" to Planning "Science" | p. 55 |
| 6.2 A reference Framework for Planning Science: Some Essential Postulates | p. 56 |
| 6.2.1 Logical Postulates | p. 56 |
| 6.2.2 Field or Delimitation Postulates | p. 59 |
| 6.3 The Planning Process | p. 62 |
| 6.4 The Planning System | p. 63 |
| 6.4.1 The Planning Selection System | p. 65 |
| 6.4.2 The Planning Implementation System | p. 68 |
| 6.4.3 Functional and Time Interdependencies | p. 70 |
| 6.5 Conclusions | p. 72 |
| 7 The Future of National Planning Systems: Some New Steps | p. 73 |
| 7.1 The Concept of "National Planning" | p. 73 |
| 7.2 National Planning in a Systemic Vision | p. 74 |
| 7.3 What Opportunities Exist for the Systemic-Type Development of National Planning? | p. 75 |
| 7.3.1 The Weight of the Past | p. 75 |
| 7.3.2 Strategic Planning at the National Scale | p. 77 |
| 7.4 The American Federal Strategic Planning: Its Effects on the National Planning Future | p. 79 |
| 7.5 From Strategic Planning to National Economic Programming: A Necessary Step Towards Systemic Planning | p. 80 |
| 7.6 Toward a Scientific and Professional Approach to the Systemic Planning | p. 81 |
| 8 Planning and Plan Evaluation: Some Well-Known and Often Neglected Pitfalls | p. 83 |
| 8.1 Logical Indeterminateness: "Evaluation" vs "Values" | p. 84 |
| 8.2 Systemic Disconnectedness | p. 88 |
| 8.3 Strategic Insubordination | p. 89 |
| 8.4 Self-Referencing | p. 90 |
| 8.5 Sub-Optimization | p. 92 |
| 8.6 Bounded Rationality | p. 92 |
| 9 Conclusions | p. 97 |
| 9.1 A question of Prepositions | p. 97 |
| 9.2 A Question of "Adjectivization" | p. 98 |
| 9.3 The "Rational" Approach Case and the "Communicative" or "Collaborative" One | p. 100 |
| 9.4 The Diagonal of "Planology" | p. 102 |
| Bibliographical References | p. 105 |
| Authors Index | p. 117 |
| Analytical Index | p. 121 |
