ABSTRACT

This book takes a Lacanian, and related post-structuralist perspective to demythologize ten of the most heavily utilised terms in spatial planning: rationality, the good, certainty, risk, growth, globalization, multi-culturalism, sustainability, responsibility and 'planning' itself. It highlights that these terms, and others, are mere 'empty signifiers', meaning everything and nothing. Based on international examples of planning practice and process, Planning in Ten Words or Less suggests that spatial and urban planning is largely based on the construction and deployment of ideological knowledge claims.

chapter 1|22 pages

Planning as an Empty Signifier

chapter 2|16 pages

The Lack of Certainty

chapter 3|18 pages

Prescribing the Good

chapter 4|20 pages

The Haunting of Risk

chapter 5|18 pages

Is Smart Growth Dumb?

chapter 6|20 pages

Pressures of Competitive Globalisation

chapter 8|22 pages

Sustainability of and for the Market?

chapter 9|24 pages

Responsibility to Whom?

chapter 10|16 pages

Beyond the Mere Rationality of Planning