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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Jean Hillier
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Author(s): Hillier J
Publication type: Authored Book
Publication status: Published
Edition: 1st
Series Title: RTPI Library Series
Year: 2002
Number of Pages: 345
Publisher: Routledge
Place Published: London
Notes: In this book I both am concerned with, and by, the picture of local planning decision making practice and I also offer a picture of planning theory and practice for the view of readers. One of my particular concerns is that planning theory should be grounded in practice and vice versa. Talking with practitioners leads me to believe that much of what takes place in everyday practice is as yet untheorised. Talking with practitioners also suggests that consensus is rarely reached over the messy issues in planning where deep–rooted values and emotions are involved. Taking these together, I explore theories of consensus–building and attempted to relate them to the actually–existing worlds of planning practice. I uncover what seem to be perfectly ‘normal’ tactics of lobbying influential people, of civil disobedience, media ‘stunts’ and symbolic gestures, as relatively marginalised and voiceless groups attempt to get their messages across to decision makers. Whilst planning officers may disapprove of such strategies as being outside of their formal public participation processes, ‘going round the back’, they nevertheless accept their reality. How may we at a local scale achieve Marcos’ (2001: 130) dream of ‘peace everywhere for everyone, with dialogue as a way that makes its own way and from which springs hope, with reason and heart as its driving force’? The question for me, which applies to planning practice as to democratic political practice, is not that of how to arrive at a rational consensus, but to mobilise feelings and emotions towards some forms of ‘democratic designs’ which can challenge what actors feel to be imperialism, whilst simultaneously embracing plurality/difference and democracy. The answers will not lie in this book, however, but I do hope that the content will stimulate readers to think and to seek their own answers.
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
ISBN: 9780415256315
