ABSTRACT
Planning is that social function which links scientific, technical and personal knowledge to organised action. Historically, when Western societies have faced crisis, like a depression, or wished to accomplish a transcending social purpose, like post-war reconstruction, they have turned to government. On such occasions, planning has played a critical role. If the influence of business was the sole basis for the retreat from planning, it might be regarded as one of those contentious issues which can only be resolved by adversarial struggle in the political arena. The foregoing implies the kind of deliberation usually associated with a process of planning. The linkage of anticipation and participation is also a feature of the concept of transactive planning in planning theory — the combining of organised action with two kinds of knowledge, the processed knowledge of the specialist with the personal or gut knowledge of the man or woman on the firing line.
