Speaker
Description
This research aims to tease out some of the potential or ‘new’ theoretical directions from the mainstream of communicative/collaborative planning theory which predominates the academic field of planning study through the 1990s to 2010s. It takes a perspective of skeleton phylogeny of human mtDNA which has been revealed by Dr Vincent Macaulay and his colleagues in their study on statistical inference of demography from DNA sequence data, particularly prehistoric human demography as inferred from mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation (see, https://www.maths.gla.ac.uk/~vincent/). Based on the recent published articles related to planning theory, as well as two theory collections, this research identifies four potential main DNAs in planning theory evolution, namely post-political, post-colonialism, complexity or post-structuralism and post-humanism. The two collections are the three volumes of Critical Essays in Planning Theory edited by Jean Hillier and Patsy Healey, and Routledge Handbook of Planning Theory edited by Michael Gunder, Ali Madanipour, and Vanessa Watson. After rendering the general philosophical backdrop for each of the potential main DNAs, the research will be distinguishing further variations of planning theory within them. Patsy has put forward that ‘what makes for the “new” is the relation of ideas to new contextual configurations, as new imaginations and potentialities emerge from our struggles with our current dilemmas.’ This research endeavors to be such a kind of struggle.
| Keywords | planning theory; evolution; post-political; post-colonialism; complexity; post-humanism |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
