ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

What’s the planner’s role in policy making for sustainability? Using Q methodology to explore how public planners perceive their scope of action

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 04 | GOVERNANCE

Speaker

Eva Purkarthofer (Aalto University)

Description

In the context of planning, sustainable development is a ubiquitous yet vague goal which can be pursued through a broad range of policies and policy mixes (Griggs et al., 2017; Gunder & Hillier, 2009). Neither of these policies are unavoidable or self-evident. Rather, they represent conscious or unconscious choices, determined by different knowledges, path dependencies, institutional frameworks and the actions and interactions of individuals. Consequently, they are the outcome of the dialectic between agency and structure (Giddens, 1984).
This contribution aims to explore what role individual public planners play in the creation of policies geared at sustainable development – or more precisely how they perceive their influence. The literature suggests that there are different ideal types of actors: the “doers”, who strive for pragmatic solutions; the “entrepreneurs” who use creativity and networking skills to tap existing potentials; the “bureaucrats” who aim for inclusion, dialogue, and improvement of rules within an established system; and the “neutrals” who focus on their technical expertise or their own careers (Purkarthofer and Stead, 2023).
These theoretical actor types will be contrasted with the data obtained through an online Q questionnaire in which public planners are asked to sort statements about their work practices and perceived influence. Q methodology is able to elicit, evaluate and compare subjective viewpoints (Robbins and Krueger, 2000) and is therefore suitable to delineate a nuanced picture of planners’ self-assessment regarding their role in the policy making process. The study invites public sector planners from four countries (Austria, Finland, Italy, United Kingdom) to participate.
Investigating the leeway of planners contributes to shed light on the question where policies aimed at sustainable urban development become concrete and how agency plays a decisive role in defining actions in a specific context. Such a view enables us to move beyond blanket statements such as “agency matters” / “structure matters” and towards an empirically informed view of how planners perceive their role and agency in policy making. A better understanding of planners’ scope of action can reveal new perspectives on sustainability leadership (Purkarthofer, Halko and Mäntysalo, 2024), the tensions between technocratic modes of governance and the complexities of places (Raco and Savini, 2019) and help to reflect on the (changing) role of the planner (Fox-Rogers and Murphy, 2016).

References

Fox-Rogers, L. and Murphy, E. (2016) ‘Self-perceptions of the role of the planner’, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 43(1), pp. 74–92. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0265813515603860.
Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Purkarthofer, E., Halko, A. and Mäntysalo, R. (2024) ‘Turning global sustainability goals into local actions: The role of the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs in fostering integrative public leadership in Espoo, Finland.’, in The Palgrave Handbook on Practical Sustainability. Springer.
Purkarthofer, E. and Stead, D. (2023) ‘Agency and Structure in Urban and Regional Planning: An Illustrative Overview and Future Research Agenda’, Journal of Planning Literature, 38(4), pp. 571–587. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/08854122231178949.
Raco, M. and Savini, F. (eds) (2019) Planning and knowledge: how new forms of technocracy are shaping contemporary cities. Bristol: Policy Press.
Robbins, P. and Krueger, R. (2000) ‘Beyond Bias? The Promise and Limits of Q Method in Human Geography’, The Professional Geographer, 52(4), pp. 636–648. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/0033-0124.00252.