Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews significant theoretical discussions outside planning which can assist with developing a discussion of the role of values and evaluation within it. It considers some ways in which values enter three particular spheres of planning activity – environmental management, design/aesthetic control, and heritage/conservation. The book analyses concepts and approaches which are central to planning and are, themselves, evaluative. It argues the rehabilitation of a concept which has been criticised by some as ideology masquerading as objectivity. The book considers how the role of values in planning has been incorporated into the education of planners. It reviews the more influential conceptions of social justice and explores the implications for planning of feminist epistemological critiques differs in their intellectual referents, approach and presentation. The book focuses on the implications for planning, and evaluation within it, of the demise of the disembodied rational subject.