Conflict at Large: A National Survey of Planners and Political Conflict

Abstract

Results of a national survey reveal that planners respond to the risks of political conflict with either ambivalence or a willingness to engage in political organizing and negotiating. Among the planners who encountered politically threatening conflicts, most took efforts to prevent this sort of predicament, but their efforts usually failed. Organizing allies proved to be the only coping action that exhibited a direct statistical effect on conflict outcomes. The ambivalence evident in their reports not only reveals a need for individual education to improve practitioners' strategic negotiating and organizing skills, but also the institutional vulnerability of planning and its lack of political and cultural supports.