Planning and the Design and Use of Forums, Arenas, and Courts

In today's shared-power, no-one-in-charge, interdependent world, public problems and issues spill over organizational and institutional boundaries. Many people are affected by problems like global warming, AIDS, homelessness, drug abuse, crime, growing poverty among children, and teen pregnancy, but no one person, group, organization, or institution has the power or authority necessary to solve these problems. Instead, organizations and institutions must share objectives, resources, activities, power or some of their authority in order to achieve collective gains or minimize losses (Bryson and Einsweiler 1991). They also must plan but the shared-power context calls for new conceptions of planning.