Expert and experiential knowledge in planning

Urban sustainability and knowledge: Theoretical heterogeneity and the need of a transdisciplinary framework. A tale of four towns

“…So we did not find a transdisciplinary vision of urban sustainability within this review of the literature but we found some of the elements of transdisciplinarity in several authors on urban planning and governance who convey a vision of sustainability as ''mediatory concept'' [30]. These authors [26,23,31,30,32], who share the need of a collaborative view of urban governance and planning [33], agree that the ''sustainable city'' should represent not the goal but the path that urban policymakers must undertake. This conception of an ''on-going'' city planning have an archetype in the John Forester's concept of ''the deliberative practitioner'', who conveys a fundamental notion as that of ''action planning'' which assigns a new management task to the planner.…”

“…These visions are characterized by a first attempt to overcome the boundaries among various areas of scientific knowledge, but not yet between the scientific/academic knowledge and the other kinds of expertise owned by city users (citizens) and practitioners (public administrators), defined as lay [22] and experiential knowledge [23]. They are distinguished by the use of tools and concepts coming from different fields of knowledge but they do not involve scientific insights [24,25].…”

A Case for Coastal Theory with Lessons from Planning Theory

“…Planning has been conceptualized as the link between knowledge and action (Friedmann 1987). Within the context of contemporary planning there are two types of knowledge that are often used when seeking solutions: expert and experiential (Khakee, Barbanente, and Borri 2000). These classifications are general, but they do represent a continuum along which various forms of knowledge align.…”

The SoftGIS approach to local knowledge

“…This conception of local knowledge and its status in planning is common among practising planners. It is, however, important to understand that the planners, too, should acknowledge the versatile nature of their own knowledge: it is sometimes hard to distinguish formal expert knowledge from experiential knowledge, in the expert's opinion (Khakee et al, 2000).…”