This study reconsiders cognitive development in planning theory, in order to expose the underlying cognitive framework through which academics communicate in planning literature. A cognitive framework develops over time and through experience within the minds of theorists and readers of planning theory. This framework forms the basis for orientation and interpretation of planning literature by the reader. This is illustrated by describing the various perspectives within planning theory and the connotations they have with different levels of theorising. The different perspectives involve the nature thereof, the history and its political conviction, underpinned by ideology. The different levels of theorising involve a framework which descends from thinking through to implementation and consists of a philosophical–, meta–theoretical– and a technical (tools) level. The problem is that the concept of a developed cognitive framework is rarely discussed in a constructive manner in planning literature. This proves to be the cause of confusion for students and other readers whom have not yet developed their own cognitive framework. An incomplete framework causes misconceptions from existing literature for example: the purpose of Faludi's book Planning Theory (1973). A discussion of this framework by academics could explain unresolved debates such as the substance and procedural debate and the normative theory versus the positive theory debate. The application of this framework proves that the political conflict in planning theory literature such as the more rational perspectives versus the more socio–political perspectives could be more constructive. Therefore this study argues that a cognitive framework could be determined by the general perspectives in planning literature together with different levels of theorising, and should become a constructive part of planning theory (debate) and education. Furthermore this study argues that if all perspectives are allowed to develop fully (non–competitive and attaining all different levels of theorising), connotations could be made on a meta–theoretical level to provide a proper cross range description of planning and provide a proper basis for comparison and would lead to more relevant and constructive debate(s). / Thesis (M.Art. et Scien. (Town and Regional Planning))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This study reconsiders cognitive development in planning theory, in order to expose the underlying cognitive framework through which academics communicate in planning literature. A cognitive framework develops over time and through experience within the minds of theorists and readers of planning theory. This framework forms the basis for orientation and interpretation of planning literature by the reader. This is illustrated by describing the various perspectives within planning theory and the connotations they have with different levels of theorising. The different perspectives involve the nature thereof, the history and its political conviction, underpinned by ideology. The different levels of theorising involve a framework which descends from thinking through to implementation and consists of a philosophical–, meta–theoretical– and a technical (tools) level. The problem is that the concept of a developed cognitive framework is rarely discussed in a constructive manner in planning literature. This proves to be the cause of confusion for students and other readers whom have not yet developed their own cognitive framework. An incomplete framework causes misconceptions from existing literature for example: the purpose of Faludi's book Planning Theory (1973). A discussion of this framework by academics could explain unresolved debates such as the substance and procedural debate and the normative theory versus the positive theory debate. The application of this framework proves that the political conflict in planning theory literature such as the more rational perspectives versus the more socio–political perspectives could be more constructive. Therefore this study argues that a cognitive framework could be determined by the general perspectives in planning literature together with different levels of theorising, and should become a constructive part of planning theory (debate) and education. Furthermore this study argues that if all perspectives are allowed to develop fully (non–competitive and attaining all different levels of theorising), connotations could be made on a meta–theoretical level to provide a proper cross range description of planning and provide a proper basis for comparison and would lead to more relevant and constructive debate(s). / Thesis (M.Art. et Scien. (Town and Regional Planning))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Planning theory is turning again towards the question of power, particularly in relation to recent claims to a new communicative planning 'paradigm'. This thesis investigates how Foucauldian discourse analytics, embracing concepts of discourse, power/knowledge, rationality and space can contribute in sensitising planning research to power. A Foucauldian approach is developed which problematises the construction of rationality in spatial planning processes, focusing on the institutionalisation of rationality in the tools that provide decision-support. The power relations that condition this construction process are investigated in a detailed case study of the treatment of environmental risks in the policy process for the trans-European transport network. Key events are analysed, as a new policy discourse of European space and mobility emerges and is institutionalised in an ED policy framework. A narrative of the micro-politics of power at work focuses on the construction of Strategic Environmental Assessment as the principal tool in institutionalising a new discourse of environmental integration into TEN-T policy discourse. The case study operationalises discourse analytics in a way which embraces social practices and institutional dynamics as well as texts, showing the value of a non-textually oriented research design. The result is a detailed analysis of how power relations affected environmental integration in a critical area of ED policy making. Discoursive struggles were found to shape the local struggles taking place within the policy process, between EU institutions, individuals within them, and other interests. The policy outcome for environmental risks was found to be heavily conditioned by these struggles. These findings contribute to general understanding of the struggles for hegemony between economic, political and environmental discourses in spatial planning at EU and other levels. The operationalisation of a Foucauldian discourse analytic approach in this study suggests its usefulness in planning research, as well as in exploring theoretical questions about the relations between discourse, rationality, power/knowledge and space in spatial planning.

Urban policies are currently shaped by contemporary processes of globalisation including a market-oriented approach to urban development. In Rio de Janeiro there is currently a high rate of urban population growth causing issues such as inequality, informal settlements and lack of access to basic services. Improved urban management is urgently needed which has become an obstacle to overcome by the GoRJ and the World Bank. Participatory methods has become widely integrated into development promoting programs with the incentive to include various key stakeholders in urban policy making. This case study explores issues of how strategies are produced and implemented into the context of Rio de Janeiro. Furthermore, it aims to explore events caused by such strategies. Based on a taken-for-granted premise that participatory methods and market-oriented planning leads to accelerated development, this study calls for a critical examination of how such approaches are carried out in practice.  In communicative planning theory, there is a critical stance towards rational models used in planning systems. The findings of this paper present how neoliberal ideology has formed urban development in Rio de Janeiro and how it contains a rational rethoric. It furher presents ways of how participatory methods can reinforce oppressions and injustices, serving a top-down approach rather than the opposite.

Contemporary South African planning practice is rich in detail, complexity and innovation born out of a need to fulfil a post-apartheid development agenda. This practice warrants theorising. This dissertation aims to advance the concept of critical pragmatism into an analytical framework that will facilitate the analysis and theorising of one such complex planning case, and its delivery. The case study examines the Kathorus Special Integrated Presidential Project (KSiPP) – an ambitious, large-scale strategic planning programme that was by many accounts successful in achieving a substantial range and scale of outcomes in an exceedingly complex underdeveloped and violence-ridden context. This case provides the material for a deeper analysis of what actually happened in the project, through the application of my framework. Within the dissertation I define critical pragmatism as a concept for exploring planning practice as: An analytical framework for examining the actual processes and outcomes of planning practice that is contextually situated; that operates within and through pervasive power relations, which are exercised through and influenced by multiple rationalities, and practice in which the planning choices that are made are valueladen and mutable. This framework is comprised of five interrelated elements. These are: context, outcomes, power, rationality and ethics. These are derived through a study of the philosophical roots of critical and pragmatic schools of planning. My interrogation of these roots and planning traditions, especially with reference to thinkers such as Dewey, Habermas, Foucault, Harrison, among others, finds that while the critical traditions predominantly foreground power, the pragmatic traditions predominantly focus on action and outcome. Each tradition is limited and a conversation between them, in an integrated critical pragmatism produces a framework that can address the sort of complexities manifest in the KSiPP. Out of this conversation and the identification of ethics as an element somewhat lacking in both traditions, a contemporary critical pragmatic analytical framework is derived and substantiated, with significant implications for the discipline of planning. My own involvement as a practitioner in the project provides close methodological benefits and insights for the thesis. The research methodology employed in this thesis focuses on case study techniques, with a strong leaning on practice writing. An in-depth literature review research into theoretical concepts in planning and philosophy has enabled the development of an appropriate framework for analysis. The application of my framework yields deep and nuanced findings of the KSiPP. These include the extent to which context and circumstances contributed to the project, whose means and ends were multifaceted. The explicit assessment of power in the project illuminates its many faces in its institutional, collaborative and personal forms. A precise examination of the rationalities that were at play finds competing political and technical rationalities, and their relationships with power and action. Finally, an assessment of the project against the ethical question of justice, found it lacking and modified the sense of the KSiPP as an entirely successful endeavour. The value of critical pragmatism is that it enables a conversation between the analytical efforts to understand planning practice and outcome, and the efforts to analyse the power, rationality and ethical choices inherent in planning processes. It also takes what is implicit within such frameworks and particularly in the work of Forester, who has written of a critical pragmatic approach to planning, and makes this explicit and thus available for use in further evaluation.

abstract: Emotional support messages can benefit recipients; however, verbal and nonverbal aspects of these messages can vary in effectiveness, and the process of communicating support can be stressful to some supporters. One potential behavior that may yield more effective support messages for recipients while reducing anxiety and stress for supporters is message planning. Thus, planning theory is used to test whether planning influences message effectiveness, nonverbal delivery of messages, self-reported anxiety, and physiological stress markers. Additionally, an individual’s trait-level reticence and prior support experiences are predicted to moderate the effects of message planning. One hundred laboratory participants were assigned to either a planning condition or writing distraction task and completed a series of self-report and physiological measures before, during, and after recording an emotional support message to a friend who had hypothetically been diagnosed with a serious form of cancer. Subsequently, a sample of one hundred cancer patients viewed the laboratory participants’ videos to provide message effectiveness ratings and four trained coders provided data on nonverbal behaviors from these recorded messages. Findings showed planning leads to more effective messages; however, it also leads to supporters engaging in success bias and inflation bias. Planning also increased vocal fluency, but not other nonverbal behaviors. Likewise, planning attenuated heart rate reactivity, but not other physiological markers. In general, experience and reticence did not moderate these main effects. Theoretical, practical, clinical, pedagogical, and methodological implications are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2018

Planning for the development of water infrastructure within informal settlements in the city of São Paulo, Brazil is a complicated process. This research uses the Rational Planning Model to explore the differences between planning in North America and in the Global South. Further, this research develops the various aspects of planning in the Global South through the examination of policy documents, interview data to identify the behavior of the practitioner – the urban planner - and his/her agency – creating the municipal perspective. / text

Through a case study analysis of the Central Park placemaking initiative in Winnipeg, this Major Degree Project explores the process of collaborative planning with new immigrant communities. While existing research examines the potential of placemaking to promote physical improvements through collaborative planning, we know less about whether placemaking initiatives achieve the long-term social outcomes associated with collaborative planning theory. Located in downtown Winnipeg, Central Park is surrounded by a diverse multi-cultural community, consisting of many new immigrants. In 2008, the CentreVenture Development Corporation launched a placemaking initiative to revitalize Central Park. The community was a key collaborator in the planning and design process. This thesis examines the long-term social outcomes of this initiative. The main research methods for this project include key informant interviews, and archival and secondary source analysis of existing data. The research finds that collaborative planning processes offer the potential to promote sustainable inner city neighbourhood revitalization. Placemaking through collaborative planning can develop new institutional capacity for participants. By developing and harnessing relational, intellectual and political resources communities can mobilize co-ordinated action toward future initiatives. The findings of this research advance the literature and understanding of collaborative planning processes, particularly within the context of placemaking with new immigrant communities. This thesis adds to the literature of inner city neighbourhood revitalization and collaborative planning theory. / October 2015

The object of the study is spatial planning / the point of view to spatial planning is idea of progress. Within this framework, this thesis will examine, planning activity, one of the most important mediation between planners and space. Planning activity will express itself as the circulation of purpose (analysis) and action during the thesis. Firstly, spontaneity of objective purpose, partial conscious character of political purpose and conscious position of subjective purpose will be admitted as global irrational action, and so spatial planning will be assumed as a priori against idea of progress. Secondly, (partial) conscious position will express itself as the conflict of truth and illusion. Thirdly, totality, the representative of process of becoming, will supply itself as the object of idea of progress. Therefore, while examining concrete forms of planning, totality will become the mean of idea of progress. Within this context, the first claim of our thesis is that concrete forms of planning cannot bring about the progress directly. The second claim is that they are unconscious about their position in conflict and developing one-sided attitude against space. Lastly, in the sense of totality, the third claim is that planning theories and practices, historically, produce opposinary dynamics in them. Therefore, it will be introduced that two one-sided critiques of comprehensive planning- one is materialist and the other is idealist- comes together and produces structure planning. Moreover, structure planning will be claimed as flexible modes of becoming, abstractly sublating historical ideologies. As a result the new modes of becoming will be considered, similarly, loading its conflict and opposinary dynamics in it, this conflict is the conflict between concrete form of planning departuring from reality and planning theory arriving to reality.

Metropolitan regions around the world are growing rapidly and face a complex and uncertain future. Plans for metropolitan regions cover large geographic areas, address a wide range of issues, and involve governments and many other organizations. They are prepared and implemented over a long timeframe. Planning for the future of metropolitan regions involves addressing uncertainties about future trends, external events, organisational intentions, political agendas and community values. In this thesis, it is argued that traditional planning approaches that emphasise what is known or thought to be known need to be turned on their head and the focus of planning efforts aimed directly at understanding what is unknown or needs to be known, i.e. at uncertainties. It builds upon concepts of uncertainty from philosophy, economics, planning, management theory and psychology to develop a comprehensive and dynamic conceptual framework for understanding and managing uncertainties in metropolitan planning. Uncertainties are perceived in social processes. The conceptual framework developed in this thesis distinguishes between environmental uncertainties, which are perceived by all people in a community, and process uncertainties, which are perceived by people actively involved in a planning process. The framework identifies five types of uncertainties to be understood and managed in planning: external uncertainties; chance events; causal uncertainties; organisational uncertainties; and value uncertainties. Planning processes envisage and construct alternative futures and each of these alternatives raises different uncertainties. Planning is conceived as a process of exploring alternative futures by visioning and analytical methods and of agreeing on a desired/ planned future and on how to get there. The conceptual framework has been used as a basis for two case studies of the preparation of metropolitan plans: the Livable Region Strategic Plan 1996 for Greater Vancouver, Canada; and the Regional Framework for Growth Management 1995 for South East Queensland, Australia. The case studies show that all five types of uncertainties were perceived by people actively involved in metropolitan planning. The types and level of uncertainties perceived changed through the planning process according to stages in the process, activities in the process and other events. In exploring alternative futures and a desired future, the planning process raises uncertainties and these have to be addressed and dealt with in order to reach agreement about the final plan. The case studies show that uncertainties in plan preparation were dealt with in the following five ways: • Avoided by deleting these aspects or elements of the desired future; • Deferred to a later planning process; • Referred to be dealt with by a different organisation; • Resolved by additional information collection, agreements or consultation; and • Retained in the plan and reviewed with the passage of time or contingent events. The studies also show that how uncertainties are managed, and particularly how uncertainties are dealt with in reaching agreement about the planned future, directly affects the nature and contents of the metropolitan plan produced. In this process of reaching agreement, there is a tension between achieving better or achieving more certain outcomes. How agreement occurs is affected by the interests and views of powerful groups in the decision-making process. Overall, the research shows that a focus on uncertainties assists in understanding the planning process and its outputs and that metropolitan planning can be usefully conceived as a process of understanding and managing uncertainties. Based on this research, on planning theories and on risk management models, a framework for understanding and managing uncertainties in metropolitan plan-making is proposed, involving five main stages, namely: • Initiate the planning process; • Identify the uncertainties and planning approach; • Identify the Desired Future; • Agree on the Planned Future; and • Implement the plan. The management framework involves specific methods and processes for understanding and managing uncertainties in metropolitan plan-making. The aim of the framework is to agree on a better future for a metropolitan region, compared to the trend, and with more certainty of achievement. The theories or concepts that we use to represent events and their relationships determine the kinds of action we can envisage. In the quest for certainty about better future outcomes for metropolitan regions, this thesis shows that understanding and managing uncertainty provides a powerful guide to action.