Lacan, Planning and Urban Policy Formation

Abstract

Why is it so difficult to define concisely the meaning of 'planning' and many of its dominant concepts-public interest, new urbanism, sustainability or smart growth-when deployed in formulating urban policy? Lacan's discourse theory suggests an answer based on an understanding of our human subjectivity, a subjectivity that implicitly seeks to overlook contradiction and ambiguity in our desire to fulfil human aspirations for a harmonious and secure world. This article will use Lacanian theory to examine the beliefs of the planning profession, how they are shaped and then implemented in our urban environments. In particular, Lacan's central theoretical premise of the Four Discourses will be explained and related to planning policy formulation. That is, how planners' acquire and internalise the discipline's diffuse sets of values, beliefs, knowledges and traditions, prior to then imposing them as urban policies on society.

Making Planning Theory Matter: A Lacanian Encounter withPhronesis

“…Further, Schön (1988) documents that in the teaching of architects, planners, or psychoanalysts this acquisition of professional habitus occurs in studio, workshop, or clinical teaching experience, through a process of 'frame' transference -the embedding of the professional habitus -from the teaching authority to the student via experiential learning. As Gunder (2003bGunder ( , 2004Gunder ( , 2005 illustrated, drawing on Lacan's (2007) theory of discourse analysis, this transference occurs within planning education. The 'frames' constituting the correct value attributes of a planning master signifiers are first learnt by observing actions of the teacher as a role model.…”

In Search of Radical Democracy: The Ideological Character of Current Political Advocacies for Culture Change in Planning

“…According to Gunder (2005a), the reason for this split is that "neither the subject nor the material world can be diminished to the symbolic alone" (page 89). Instead, many o f our core beliefs, and thus our ideologies, are shaped by that which "resides outside o f symbolic language" (Gunder, 2005c, page 174).…”

Planning for Desirable Land Uses in Periurban Landscapes: Application of a Spatial Concept for Territorial Sustainability

“…On the other side of the same coin, for successful planning we are required to shape existing community values and perceptions (Gunder 2005). Far from objective, we must clarify the purpose of our intended optimization processes (eventually, a questionable goal in itself).…”