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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Jean Hillier
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In this paper we seek to present a challenge to the normative prescriptive role of strategic urban planning practice. In effect, we challenge what has traditionally been regarded as the essence of strategic or 'forward' planning: the plan as a statement of what the city ought to become. Using Lacanian-inspired analysis we seek to understand how urban issues may be identified as metaphorical deficiencies or illnesses, to which planners apply a therapeutic salve in the form of strategic policies. Turning to the psychological utopianism of Ernst Bloch, a Freudian-inspired predecessor of Lacan, we suggest a way forward in Bloch's immanent transcendent conceptualisation of hope. We suggest replacement of the transcendent term 'utopian' by 'utopic, as a practice which is critical, inclusive, and dynamic; performative rather than normative. © 2007 a Pion publication printed in Great Britain.
Author(s): Gunder M, Hillier JS
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Environment and Planning A
Year: 2007
Volume: 39
Issue: 2
Pages: 467-486
ISSN (print): 0308-518X
ISSN (electronic): 1472-3409
Publisher: Pion Ltd.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a38236
DOI: 10.1068/a38236
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