ABSTRACT
The ideal of public service is one of the most important elements in the ethics of professionalism. This chapter examines the way Town Planners have interpreted this ideal, and argues that it has led to conservatism in the practice of town planning, and in the education of planners. The idea of community service in planning education therefore raises fundamental questions about the nature of the education itself. The form of the ideal the authors' subscribe to can be expressed in terms of certain factors, and the style which results can be designated 'community planning'. Changing the educational environment itself poses many of the same problems which community planning hopes to overcome in other environments. The City Poverty Committee, drawing on George Clark's experience of community action in Notting Hill, is helping to set up community planning programmes in collaboration with local groups in several parts of Britain.
