ABSTRACT
The author in this chapter argues that there is a need to reconsider our understanding of impJcmentation in town planning. The traditional administrative view of implementation as the product of a neutral decision-making process leads to certain assumptions about the nature of and pre-requisites for effective planning. An alternative view, posed here, based on a negotiative understanding moves the focus away from the products of planning to the process, as the most important consideration. As a consequence there are alternative skills, understandings and requirements of the planner for effective implementation. The means by which plans are negotiated and mediated becomes central to the activity of planning and at the core of planners' skills.
