This article revisits the theme of uncertainty in planning thought. I argue that to manage the punitive consequences of uncertainty we have to acknowledge it as a socio-material condition. Uncertainty is neither a psychological state, nor a cognitive deficiency, nor a quality of external reality. Rather, it becomes manifest when we act in and engage with the world. To this extent, and to navigate uncertainty, planners have to develop strong collaborations that can resist threats. My argument draws on actor network theory and Peter Marris’s writings on the unequal distribution of resources and relationships necessary for overcoming the disruptions of uncertainty.
BeauregardRobert A.2012. “Planning with Things.” Journal of Planning Education and Research32 (2): 182–90.
5.
BeauregardRobert A.2015a. Planning Matter: Acting with Things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6.
BeauregardRobert A.2015b. “We Blame the Building! The Architecture of Distributed Responsibility.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research39 (3): 533–49.
7.
BeauregardRobert A.LietoLaura. 2016. “Does Actor Network Theory Help Planners to Think about Change?” In Actor Networks of Planning, edited by RydinYvonneTateLaura, 159–74. London: Routledge.
8.
BennettJane. 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
9.
BenvenisteGuy. 1977. The Politics of Expertise. San Francisco: Boyd and Fraser.
10.
BogostIan. 2012. Alien Phenomenology, or What It’s Like to Be a Thing. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
11.
CallonMichelLascoumesPierreBartheYannick. 2011. Acting in an Uncertain World: An Essay on Technical Democracy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
12.
ChristensenKaren. 1985. “Coping with Uncertainty in Planning.” Journal of the American Planning Association51 (1): 63–73.
13.
CleggJoshua W.2010. “Uncertainty as a Fundamental Scientific Value.” Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science44 (3): 245–51.
14.
DesmondMatthew. 2016. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. New York: Broadway Books.
15.
DeweyJohn. 1929. The Quest for Uncertainty: A Study of the Relation of Knowledge to Action. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
16.
Dominquez RubioFernando. 2016. “On the Discrepancy between Objects and Things: An Ecological Approach.” Journal of Material Culture21 (1): 59–86.
17.
EricksonKai. 1976. Everything in Its Path. New York: Simon & Schuster.
18.
FlyvbjergBent. 1998. Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
19.
FlyvbjergBentBruzeliusNils. 2003. Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
20.
FlyvbjergBentSunsteinCass R. 2016. “The Principle of the Malevolent Hiding Hand; or, the Planning Fallacy Writ Large.” Social Research83 (4): 979–1004.
21.
ForesterJohn. 1999. The Deliberative Practitioner: Encouraging Participatory Planning Processes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
22.
GranovetterMark S.1973. “The Strength of Weak Ties.” American Journal of Sociology78 (6): 1360–80.
23.
HanssonSven Ove. 2002. “Uncertainties in the Knowledge Society.” International Social Science Journal54 (171): 39–46.
24.
HarmanGraham. 2014. Bruno Latour: Reassembling the Political. London: Pluto.
HommelsAnique. 2005. Unbuilding Cities: Obduracy in Urban Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
27.
HutchbyIan. 2001. “Technologies, Texts and Affordances.” Sociology35 (2): 441–56.
28.
InnesJudith E.BooherDavid E. 2004. “Reframing Public Participation: Strategies for the 21st Century.” Planning Theory & Practice5 (4): 419–36.
29.
KlinenbergEric. 2002. Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
30.
LandauMartin. 1969. “Redundancy, Rationality, and the Problem of Duplication and Overlap.” Public Administration Review29 (4): 346–58.
31.
LatourBruno. 1988. The Pasteurization of France. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
32.
LatourBuno. 1992. “Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artefacts.” In Shaping Technology/Building Society, edited by BijkerWiebe E.LawJohn, 225–58. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
33.
LatourBruno. 1999. Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
34.
LatourBruno. 2004. “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.” Critical Inquiry30 (2): 225–48.
35.
LatourBruno. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-network-theory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
36.
LehtonenTuro-Kimmo. 2017. “Objectifying Climate Change: Weather-related Catastrophes as Risks and Opportunities for Re-insurance.” Political Theory45 (1): 32–51.
37.
LietoLaura. 2017. “How Material Objects Become Urban Things.” City21 (5): 568–79.
38.
LietoLauraBeauregardRobert A., eds. 2016. Planning for a Material World. London: Routledge.
39.
MacKensieDonald. 2008. An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
40.
MarchJames G.SimonHerbert A. 1958. Organizations. New York: Wiley.
41.
MarrisPeter. 1982. Meaning and Action: Community Planning and Conceptions of Change. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
42.
MarrisPeter. 1996. The Politics of Uncertainty. London: Routledge.
43.
MurphyMichelle. 2006. Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
44.
NelsonDeborah. 2017. Tough Enough. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
45.
NussbaumMartha. 2000. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
46.
PutnamRobert. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
47.
RosenblumNancy. 2016. Good Neighbors: The Democracy of Everyday Life in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
48.
RydinYvonneTateLaura, eds. 2016. Actor Networks of Planning. London: Routledge.
49.
SayesEdwin. 2014. “Actor-network Theory and Methodology: Just What Does It Mean to Say that Non-humans Have Agency?” Social Studies of Science44 (1): 134–49.
50.
SenAmartya. 1999. Development as Freedom. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
51.
SmithsonMichael. 1985. “Toward a Social Theory of Ignorance.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior15 (2): 151–72.
52.
TverskyAmosFoxCraig R. 1995. “Weighing Risk and Uncertainty.” Psychological Review102 (2): 269–83.
53.
WallersteinImmanual. 2004. The Uncertainties of Knowledge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
