ABSTRACT
In this final Chapter we examine more critically the place of water planning within society; this locates water planning as an unavoidably political activity. Many water planners, in contrast, would prefer to see water planning primarily as a technical exercise. This is a view based on positivist thinking (Keat 1979), which emphasises data and facts above values and interpretations and consequently sees decision making as rational if founded mainly on politically neutral data-gathering rather than on genuine political debate. Our analysis draws on the perceptions of those involved in the planning process of the nature of power within society. Many concerned with planning in Britain see society as groups and individuals each with equal opportunity or power to influence decisions through democratic processes. This pluralist view of society appears to find support in certain cases analysed in earlier Chapters, where genuine democratic processes and cooperative effort dominated policy decisions. However, the view is also at odds with other planning situations identified, including both certain overall water planning policies and decisions concerning individual schemes. Here we saw fundamental conflict between groups competing for the same resources. Such evidence supports a view of society as a collection of individuals and groups in often irreconcilable conflict leading to alienation, rather than one emphasising basic consensus among those involved where disagreements are simply temporary aberrations or imbalances in an otherwise satisfactory system. These different views of society affect the way planners plan and, above all, influence their approach to conflict over policies, plans and schemes.
