ABSTRACT
The chapters which follow include reflections on the aims listed above. I consider local land-use planning decision-making practice in relation to Habermasian communicative action theory and Foucauldian notions of power; the conflicts of values, images, identities and their representation by different stakeholders in planning practice; the meaning and role of participatory discussion in planning decisionmaking and the ways in which various actors ‘subvert’ formal practices; the nature of participation in planning decisions through both formal and informal strategies; the impediments to consensus-formation and the likelihood of ineliminable conflict and the possibilities for compromise.
