ABSTRACT
In its broadest terms, this chapter demonstrates the value of textual analysis as a means of interpreting the landscape. It draws upon the epistemological critique associated with postmodernism to analyze the ways in which discursive practices shape social experience. Specifically, the chapter deconstructs the liberal foundation of contemporary planning. The author distinguishes her analysis from the most anarchic versions of poststructuralism and postmodernism to incorporate its insights into a reconstructed modernist geography while drawing from the critical spirit of poststructural discourse theory. Her attention to the cultural politics of development proceeds intertextually by drawing connections among the City of Portland’s Comprehensive Plan, the landscape values encoded in the plan, broader sets of political writings and the specific texts produced by competing interests in Portland’s controversial land-use case. The author argues that examining the comprehensive plan provides a powerful means of analyzing the social and political ideologies that are woven into the material fabric of the city.
