Collaborative Planning: Shaping Places in Fragmented Societies

by Patsy Healey

In this important new book Patsy Healey draws on a very wide range of developments in social, political and spatial thought to propose a new framework for planning which is rooted in the institutional realities of the emerging world of the twenty-first century. International in scope and comprehensive in its range, it points a way forward for spatial planning activity, from a narrow technical and procedural focus towards a communicative and collaborative model for achieving common purposes in the shared spaces of our fragmented societies.

446 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Oleksii Pedosenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but already feels a bit outdated.

[Gede Suprayoga · Rating 4 out of 5]

How spatial planning activities can be mobilized effectively to solve societal goals? This book aims to seek the answer. Theories presented here are derived from policy studies and governance/institutional theory. It provides a pragmatic program to design spatial policies and to act on agreed decisions based on the context in which planning takes place. The book touches aspects of a collaborative planning process, namely the 'hard' infrastructure, e.g., formal regulations, and the 'soft' infrastructure, e.g. community trust and informal rules, that contribute to the mobilization of resources, mutual commitment, and legitimacy for future actions. By acknowledging the role of both aspects, planners and policymakers can design a spatial policy much better to solve the pressing issue of today's society (sustainability, quality of life, etc.).