Critical Theory and Planning Practice

Abstract

In planning practice, communication is political. When a community organization or a developer obtains information can be as important as what information is obtained. What planners do not say can be as important as what they do say. Planners shape not only documents or information, then, but also citizens' access to information, their understanding and interpretation of such information, and their ability to participate effectively in political processes affecting their lives. The structure of the planning process reflects a systematic patterning of communication that thus influences levels of community organization, citizen participation, and autonomous, responsible citizen action. This paper applies Jurgen Habermas' critical communications theory of society to planning practice in order to clarify (1) how planning practice works as communicative action, (2) how planning action and broader political-economic forces may work to thwart or foster a democratic planning process, and (3) how, then, a planning theory assessing planning practice can be concretely empirical and immediately normative, offering us pragmatic strategy and political vision together. Critical theory illuminates both structural obstacles to a democratic planning process and the practical opportunities planners have to counteract and overcome those obstacles.