Procedural planning theory: The synthetic necessity

Abstract

Procedural planning theory has, over a period of many years, been subjected to criticism on various grounds. The cur­rent critique is based on the perception that the procedural model is divorced from context -that it is a theoretical construct separated from socio-political reality. The tendency to separate the procedural from the substantive fields of planning theory has been reinforced by a fairly broad body of work concerned with the classification of planning the­ory. While the classification typologies have value in the comparative analysis they provide of the attributes of various theoretical approaches, they have tend­ed to negate or neglect the significance of the connectivity between theories. The view presented in this paper is that procedural and substantive connections are essential to planning-in-practice and that if procedural theory fails to accom­modate these linkages, it should be re­cast in non-theoretical methodological form. The elements of planning theory can then be freely connected or synthe­sized, transferred to the methodology of planning and incorporated in the prac­tice of planning.