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Planning as urban therapeutic

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Jean Hillier

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Abstract

In this paper we seek to present a challenge to the normative prescriptive role of strategic urban planning practice. In effect, we challenge what has traditionally been regarded as the essence of strategic or 'forward' planning: the plan as a statement of what the city ought to become. Using Lacanian-inspired analysis we seek to understand how urban issues may be identified as metaphorical deficiencies or illnesses, to which planners apply a therapeutic salve in the form of strategic policies. Turning to the psychological utopianism of Ernst Bloch, a Freudian-inspired predecessor of Lacan, we suggest a way forward in Bloch's immanent transcendent conceptualisation of hope. We suggest replacement of the transcendent term 'utopian' by 'utopic, as a practice which is critical, inclusive, and dynamic; performative rather than normative. © 2007 a Pion publication printed in Great Britain.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Gunder M, Hillier JS

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Environment and Planning A

Year: 2007

Volume: 39

Issue: 2

Pages: 467-486

ISSN (print): 0308-518X

ISSN (electronic): 1472-3409

Publisher: Pion Ltd.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a38236

DOI: 10.1068/a38236


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