Abstract
Two books have recently appeared which present very different views on planning. They are Bruce McClendon and Ray Quay's Mastering Change and Norm Krumholz and John Forester's Making Equity Planning Work. Each offers a perspective on planning practice, on American society and local government, and on the planner's roles in that context which, sometimes explicitly and often by implication, seem to be the polar opposite of the other. Both books are open about promoting their positions saying that this is how planners ought to practice, this is how we should teach would-be planners to plan successfully.
For the planning profession in general and for planning educators in particular the implicit models of society, and planning practice in that society, which these books contain present profound implications for planning theory, education, and practice. To stimulate an open discourse on these different approaches, this review symposium adopts an unusual format, but one which is clearly warranted by the presence of such a rare juxtaposition of views.
Each pair of authors compares the two books in a critical review that focuses on the differences between their approaches and their meaning for planning education and practice. Two commentators were chosen as discussants of this dialogue because they combine theory and practice: academic-practitioner John Bryson, Professor at the University of Minnesota, who has extensive practice and consulting experience in strategic planning; and practitioner-academic Paul Farmer, Deputy Director of Planning in Pittsburgh, who was on the faculty of the Universaty of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and now teaches at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Though these books are products of the eighties they are important. And the discussion below deserves our attention for its implicatzons for planning practice and education through the nineties and beyond.
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