1982/03/31 by John Forester · 9 citations
Social Sciences · #Foucault, Power, and Ethics #Political Theology and Sovereignty #Urban Planning and Governance
paper · doi:10.1080/01944368208976167
openalex publication_date 1982/03/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Information is a source of power in the planning process. This article begins by assessing five perspectives of the planner's use of information: those of the technician, the incremental pragmatist, the liberal advocate, the structuralist, and the “progressive.” Then several types of misinformation (inevitable or unnecessary, ad hoc or systematic) are distinguished in a reformulation of bounded rationality in planning, and practical responses by planning staff are identified. The role and ethics of planners acting as sources of misinformation are considered. In practice planners work in the face of power manifest as the social and political (mis)-man-agement of citizens' knowledge, consent, trust, and attention. Seeking to enable planners to anticipate and counteract sources of misinformation threatening public serving, democratic planning processes, the article clarifies a practical and politically sensitive form of “progressive” planning practice.