ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes to face some ethical challenges which are due to the nature of the political regime and planning context. The uncollaborative nature of our society and institutions in relation to planning is well described by Brand and Gaffikin. The stage is the city of Palermo, and dramatis personae are City Council Institutions, residents, local associations, school teachers and students, university students and the author, who plays multiple roles in multiple dramas. The exploitation of the university students was strategic for two main reasons: to bridge the gap between adults and children; and to give independence and intellectual autonomy to planning researchers in the face of institutional power. Damasio has demonstrated the role of emotion in rational thinking. Indeed, the principles of rigour and objectivity come from the positivist research tradition, which has been developed in a Western epistemological framework.
