Progressive Change
It is unfortunate that policy discourse has had so little influence on operational
planning. In other words development outcomes still mainly reflect what
landowners want, what developers perceive as most profitable, and what local
government politicians match up with landowner and developer interests – in
essence a ‘booster trinity’.
On the one hand there is John
Friedmann (USA – 1987: 84) exhorting for
planning that ‘we cannot wish not to
know, and we cannot escape the need to
act’; and on the other Andrew Blowers
(UK – 1980: 63) extolling that ‘planning is
a weak activity performing essentially a
bureaucratic function’! One interpretation to place on this unlikely couplet would
be to defend transpacific practice against the transatlantic! Yet looking at the two
quotes in more detail, they can both be endorsed: Friedmann’s because of his hope
mirroring despair that so much of the available theoreticalunderstanding is not
being engaged, and Blowers because of his despair mirroring hope that so many
availabletechnicalprocedures are not applied.
A Nozickian minimal government attitude (box 1.3) to the planning process
persists within local government, despite the post-World War II liberalization
of administrative and business management. Here, in rounding off this theory-
focused chapter, the level of dumbing-down discourse which poleaxes ‘radical’
endeavours is identified and noted. The hallmarks of negativity of this kind is
colloquially expressed in figure 2.7 as a Listing of ‘new idea’ killers – but it is
important to note the ‘alternate’ aside!
Life, including the greater part of conservancy managers’ lives, is mostly
problems-centred, whereas life for the developer specialist is focused towards the
opening up of new potentials– which should work through as public ownership
of good outcomes. The development and/or conservancy manager who under-
stands clearly the current context, and past negative and passive experiences, is
placed to see the direction ahead and how to make progress by engaging the flow-
logic of sustainable planning. This mission direction is no one-day butterfly. The
implemented results, for better or worse, are around ‘indefinitely’ and will impact
significantly upon the next and succeeding generations. The main point here is
that the radical way around is perceived as part of every multiple belief system,
and in these terms can be identified as neomodern in style and character.
Making the creative leap or taking the design step is, as already noted, ‘within
the planning loop’ for both the traditional-lineal and radical-multiplex modes. In
my experience the creative outcome of sustainable planning endeavour is the purest
essence of planning pleasure and planning reward combined. This gift of up-front cre-
ativity and long-lived certainty does not, to be sure, fall to development and con-
servancy practitioners evenly. Yet much can be done by individual practitioners
to enhance their level of longer-term operational satisfaction. This is achieved66 Principles
The ‘booster trinity’ at work