Progressive planning, biased discourse, and critique: An agentic perspective

Abstract

Progressive theorists and reflective practitioners have exhorted agents to renounce exploitative planning discourses. This repudiation can, however, only be successful if the agent's own investment in biased discourses is accounted for. Reflecting on the work of Jon Elster, John Thompson, and Raymond Geuss, it is argued that the progressive planner should direct agents toward an acknowledgement of the motives compelling them to become invested in biased discourse, and how these discourses satisfy these motives by capitalizing on the trappings of habitual modes of reasoning and thriving on the ambiguity of referents. The value of this perspective is illustrated in an analysis of neoliberalism as a contemporary hegemonic discourse. It is discussed how popular anxieties about social mobility and community power motivate the investment in discourses characterized by a thesis of the inevitability of neoliberal restructuring and associations with narratives on entrepreneurialism, multiculturalism, and self-help. Downloaded from Planning Theory 13(1) Elster J (1979) Ulysses and the Sirens: Studies in Rationality and Irrationality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Elster J (1981) Sour Grapes: Studies in the Subversion of Rationality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Elster J (1982) Marxism, functionalism, and game theory.

Socio-spatial complexity in leisure development

“…The prominence of the economic discourse is in line with a larger dominance or hegemony of neoliberal discourses (Farhat, 2013). From a complexity perspective, this can be considered a co-evolving development, where discourses on leisure co-evolve with other discourses related to the importance of the economy.…”

The role of discourses in enacting neoliberal urbanism: Understanding the relationship between ideology and discourse in planning

“…Yet, it is not clear why exactly it has found traction among planners. For instance, Farhat (2014) acknowledges a cognitive function of the neoliberal ideology when he suggests that neoliberalism has been successful “because it addresses anxieties about arrested social mobility and the erosion of community power.” On the other hand, Roy (2006) implies that the dominance of neoliberalism in planning is unavoidable since planners cannot be dissociated from the political regimes in which they work.…”

The conditional city: emerging properties of Kenya’s satellite cities

“…Goldman's (2011) case study of Bangalore, for example, shows that the protesting of middle-class civic organizations against congestion, dirtiness and noise is only 'feeding comfortably into the justification for world-city projects' (570). Farhat (2014) has argued that the neoliberal discourse anticipates on anxieties about the erosion of community power and arrested social mobility. Gunder (2010) sees the neoliberal ideology as promoting enjoyment, which in planning translates itself into notions of sustainability, liveability and a globally competitive city.…”