Introduction

The contributions in this concluding section of the volume are representative of contemporary attempts at rethinking critically and renewing deliberative approaches to the treatment of planning conflicts. Each chapter takes a different perspective and derives in part from different theoretical premises, but all share, in the first place, a belief in the need for critical scrutiny of established normative models of deliberative practice—in face of their frequently disappointing application and results—and, in the second place, an interest in the renewal of their theoretical underpinnings, with a focus on recent developments in interpretive policy analysis.