ABSTRACT
The interaction between planning and complexity is a two-way street in that the connecting part between the two would be “decisions” because planning coordinates decisions through information, and these decisions emerge, at least in part, from complex systems. In a complex world such as a city, making linked decisions is of paramount importance in order for the planner to thrive, or even to survive. However, as evidenced by the experiment presented in this chapter, in a two-phase lottery, most people ignore the information provided in the lottery in the first phase while focusing on the information provided in the lottery in the second phase. This phenomenon of preference reversal may be caused by the certainty effect of the sure gain provided in the lottery in the second phase. However, a more general explanation would be that the utilities of monetary values are lottery or frame dependent. I have also provided an approach to investigating how planning should take place for a unitary organization. The proposed explanation of planning behavior can enhance our understanding of how planning should and does take place for a unitary organization. Planning has long been perceived as intervention in a spatial system that tends toward equilibrium. I proved axiomatically that plans matter for cities and conclude that urban complexity results from the four Is, which can be dealt with through plans. As a result, exploration into planning behavior is important in the face of complexity in which path dependence is the rule rather than the exception.
