ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the importance of planning theory, in all of its manifestations, for the development of a culturised planning practice. Planning theory is a rich and fertile terrain, with notable exponents and a significant body of monographs and journals. Planning theory has remained alarmingly diffuse and unfocused in relation to the cultural turn, and has been reluctant to engage culture in any of its manifestations. In terms of modernism, cultural theory and planning theory are at one in arguing that modernism was a project based on Enlightenment values developed in the eighteenth century. Communicative and collaborative theories comprise the bulk of neo-modern planning theory, and have a more venerable tradition than postmodern theory. Postmodern planning theory is generally alert to culture and sensitive to the themes of change and transformation in a global, cultural era. Neo-modern and communicative planning can access and give voices to the specificities of the vibrant diversity, hybridity and oppositional values held within communities.
