ABSTRACT

Planning theory provides the framework for undertaking social policy development. It is a tool that is as fundamental to the policy maker as a theorem is to the mathematician or a blueprint is to the builder. For the nonacademic reader, don’t let the word ‘theory’ put you off. There is nothing more practical than theory. Theory acts as a guide to the process of policy building. Theories provide a blueprint or a road map for explaining how things in the real world should or are expected to work. Theories are useful for tentatively explaining the world as we experience it, and we can decide whether or not those theories need alteration or complete rejection in favour of developing new theories that better explain reality over time and as we gain new knowledge and understanding. Without theories as guideposts, we are simply left to experience the world without explanation or ability to make cognitive sense of it.