NATURE & TYPES OF PLANNING

What is Planning?
• It is not a purely individual activity
• It is not present-oriented
• Planning cannot be routinized
• Planning has little or nothing in common with
trial-and-error approaches
• Planning is not just the imaging of desirable
futures
• Planning is not just making plans
 Definition of Planning
It is the deliberate social or organizational
activity of developing an optimal strategy
of future action to achieve a desired set of
goals, for solving novel problems in
complex contexts, and attended by the
power and intention to commit resources
and to act as necessary to implement the
chosen strategy.
 Planning Process
Problem Diagnosis

Goal Articulation

Prediction & Projection (forecasting)

“Design” of alternatives

Plan testing (economic, political, technical viability)

Evaluation (analytical & evaluation tools)

Implementation (political will is critical)

 Planning Typology
1. TRADITIONAL –
• planner prescribes both the goals of the
plan and the means of attaining them;
• assumes planner is bias-free
• i.e., master planning

2. DEMOCRATIC–
• advocates a switch in planning from a
“top-down” to a participatory process;
(Procedural process – all voices be
heard)
• usually sides with the underdog
Planning Typology
3. EQUITY /ADVOCACY –
• emphasizes substance of programs;
participatory process
• planner promotes a wider range of choices
for those residents who have few, i.e.,
interests of the poor /ethnic minorities (e.g.
affirmative action)
• Redistributional goals
Planning Typology
4.INCREMENTAL/NONPLANNING –
• works thru the mechanism of “partisan mutual
adjustment”;
• considered less a scientific technique that
follows concrete steps; rather it is a mixture of
intuition and experience in reality
• Criticism
– no radical changes are possible;
– solutions cannot be optimised;
– the focus is on what can be implemented
TYPES OF POLITICAL THEORY
 4 Types of Political Theory
1. TECHNOCRATIC THEORY AND TRADITIONAL
PLANNING
- Faith in progress through science and rationality
(technology & the power of the plan)
- Social change must be initiated by the upper class

2. DEMOCRATIC THEORY AND DEMOCRATIC

PLANNING
- Belief in equality of all; sovereignty of the majority
- Participatory approach in planning
- Slow process; social apathy; rule of majority leads
to social mediocrity to fascist authoritarianism
 4 Types of Political Theory
3. SOCIALIST THEORY AND EQUITY PLANNING
- Obtain power & benefit for the poor within an
existing democratic capitalist society
- Belief in equality with the democrat’s faith in
gov’t. by the people

4. LIBERAL THEORY AND INCREMENTALISM

- Maximize individual freedom; human beings as
rational actors who are the best judges of their
own private interests.
- Obligation of liberal gov’t. is to guarantee the
rule of law (procedural value); umpire
- Does not address social inequality
 Planning Models
1. SUBSTANTIVE MODELS/Sectoral-
Functional
2. INSTRUMENTAL MODELS
3. CONTEXTUAL MODELS
Substantive Models
1.SUBSTANTIVE MODELS/Sectoral-Functional
– Differs in sectoral or functional approach
– Reflects the prevailing institutional divisions

• Physical Planning (spatial qualities &

relationships to development)
– Urban Design
– Land Use Planning
– Transportation, Public Facilities,
Infrastructure Planning
Substantive Models
• Social and Economic Planning (facilitates
working of the market)
• Community and Neighborhood Planning
• Budgeting and Fiscal Management
• Environmental and
Resource Planning
Instrumental Models
2. INSTRUMENTAL MODELS
– Differ in what they want to accomplish and the tools
used

• Regulatory Planning – master plan, zoning

regulations, environmental regulations; related
to physical planning

• Allocative Planning – resource allocation as

incentive, i.e., tax incentive
Instrumental Models

• Development Planning/Innovative
Planning – LDCs ; to promote
economic and social advancement,
i.e., green revolution, grassroots
cooperatives (micro-enterprise)
Instrumental Models
• Indicative Planning – prediction of future
scenarios and alternative strategies/ advisory in
nature; i.e. traditional local master planning

• Imperative Planning – otherwise called

command planning, involves specific directives
(i.e.,controlled economy)
 Contextual Models
3. CONTEXTUAL MODELS
– From a historical perspective
– Differs in socio-political context and ideologies
• Comprehensive Planning – evolved from physical
planning to include social, economic variables (1940s-
1950s)
– Limitations: Based on a technocratic ideology and legitimacy
of planner’s expertise; support of the political
establishment and perpetuation of middle-class values
 Contextual Models

• Social Planning – focus on social and human

services, i.e., education, health (1960s-
1970s)
– Limitations: Assumption of central authority
as the benevolent therapist; planner raises
questions about the legitimacy and
participation in decision-making
 Contextual Models
• Advocacy Planning – advocate planner as
spokesperson for the poor, neighborhoods,
marginal groups
(mid-1960s)
• Bureaucratic Planning – planner as servant to
gov’t.; Planner is a value-neutral
administrator
– Limitation: Emphasis on rationality and
systematic analysis
 Contextual Models
• Radical or Anti-Planning – Involvement in
social change, i.e., self-help communities;
(late 1960s and early 1970s)
– Limitations: Depends on the trust and intimacy
of small-group interactions
• Non-Planning – “Trial-by-error” approach;
People’s behaviors and interactions will
eventually produce socially optimal outcome
with a minimum regulation from gov’t., i.e.,
Houston, Texas
 Planner’s Role
• Technician – Administrator /Technocrat
– technical expert to serve elected officials
• Mobilizer –
– political role
• Mediator/Umpire –
– broker; combine diverse and conflicting
interests
– enforce the rules/framework – private sector
interest (PPP projects) vs. social interest
 Planner’s Role
• Entrepreneur –
– gathers resources/funds, gets approvals and
political support to implement plans
• Advocate and Guerilla –
– Represent special interest groups which may
conflict with gov’t.
• Economic Planner –
– Allocation of scarce resources (urban land,
services and goods)
 Planner’s Role
• Environmental Watchdog
– Green Movement & Prince Charles’ advocacy
– The Prince's Foundation for the Built
Environment (formerly The Prince of Wales's Institute
of Architecture until 2001) is an educational charity
established in 1986 by HRH The Prince of Wales to teach
and demonstrate in practice those principles of
traditional urban design and architecture which put
people and the communities of which they are part at
the centre of the design process.
 Planner’s Role
• Social Engineer
– solve deep social problems through physical
planning. (i.e., resettlement, apartheid policy)
– “environmental determinism” (e.g. CPTED,
architectural determinism, environmental
psychology)
 Planner’s Role
• CORPORATE MANAGER
• in the private sector, planners have emerged as
team leaders coordinating specialist experts such
as ecologists, high ways engineers and landscape
architects.

• Other roles – adviser, interpreters or

communicators, etc.
 Hierarchy & Linkages of Plans

Physical Framework Socio-Economic Investment Program

& Comprehensive Development Plans
Land Use Plans

National National Physical Medium-Term Phil. Medium-Term Phil.

Framework Plan Dev’t. Plan (MTPD) Investment Program
(MTPIP)

Regional Regional Physical Regional Regional Phil.

Framework Plan Development Plan Investment Program

Provincial/City Provincial/City Provincial/City PDIP/CDIP

Physical Framework Development Plan
Plan

Local/Municipal Local/Municipal Local/Municipal LDIP

Framework Plan Development Plan