SHADOWS OF POWER AN ALLEGORY OF PRUDENCE IN LAND-USE PLANNING The RTPI Library Series Editors: Cliff Hague, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland Robin Boyle, Wayne State University, Michigan, USA Robert Upton, RTPI, London, UK Published in conjunction with The Royal Town Planning Institute, this series of leading- edge texts looks at all aspects of spatial planning theory and practice from a comparative and international perspective. Planning in Postmodern Times Philip Allmendinger The Making of the European Spatial Development Perspective Andreas Faludi and Bas Waterhout Planning for Crime Prevention Richard Schneider and Ted Kitchen The Planning Polity Mark Tewdwr-Jones Shadows of Power: an Allegory of Prudence in Land-use Planning Jean Hillier Forthcoming: Sustainability, Development and Spatial Planning in Europe Vincent Nadin, Caroline Brow n and Stefanie Dühr Planning and Place Identity Cliff Hague and Paul Jenkins Public Values and Private Interests Heather Campbell and Robert Marshall Urban Planning and Cultural Identity William J.V. Neill SHADOWS OF POWER AN ALLEGORY OF PRUDENCE IN LAND-USE PLANNING JEAN HILLIER First published 2002 by Routledge, 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge, 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. © 2002 Jean Hillier All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by an electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-16729-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-26212-3 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-25631-3 (PB) ISBN 0-415-25630-5 (HB) For Tejo An Allegory of Prudence, Titian © The National Gallery, London CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgements xiv Figures xvii Tables xviii PART 1: INTO THE SHADOWS 1 01 Shadows of power: an allegory of prudence in land-use planning 3 PART 2: SHADOW TALK: CONVERSATIONS WITH HABERMAS AND FOUCAULT 23 02 A conversation with Jürgen Habermas 25 03 Discussing Michel Foucault 47 04 Putting it all together: developing the foundations of a new theoretical framework 63 PART 3: CHIAROSCURO PRACTICE: THE SHADES AND LIGHTS OF PLANNING 79 05 Shadow magics 81 06 Tenebrism in the North East Corridor 99 07 Sfumatoin the forests 133 PART 4: SHADOW NEGOTIATIONS 165 08 The shadow of experience: the habitus 167 09 Negotiating the gap 177 10 Planners as missionaries or chameleons? 193 PART 5: OUT FROM THE SHADOWS 219 11 Associating with shadows 221 12 On slippery ice: beyond consensus 251 PART 6: SHADOW PLAY 273 13 ‘Coming events cast their shadows before’ 275 Bibliography 295 End notes 333 Index 341 PREFACE ‘Il me regarde en me donnant à voir le tableau.’ This phrase encapsulates my feel- ings about land-use planning decision-making practice, and about this volume in particular. Literally translated the phrase means ‘it looks at me by offering the picture for my view’. Yet the French verb, ‘regarder’ can be translated as either ‘to look at’ or ‘to concern’. In this book I both am concerned with, and by, the picture of local plan- ning decision-making practice and I also offer a picture of planning theory and practice for the view of readers. Some ten years ago, a recent arrival in Australia, I found myself in a position of having reached an agreement with someone regarding action on a particular issue. Some weeks later, the ‘boss’ took me severely to task for a lack of action. Referring to my notes of the action agreement, I pointed out to the ‘boss’ the agreed roles of each person. I was more than taken aback, therefore, when the other individual (senior to myself) was then brought into the conversation only to deny all knowledge of any such agreement and rationalise our original meeting in an entirely different way. The ‘boss’ sided with my senior. I relate this incident because it started me thinking about what is ‘truth’, its contingency, the ability to persuade others of something, and the role of power and status in influencing decision outcomes. I was still pondering these issues when I attended the 1991 AESOP/ACSP conference in Oxford and heard John Forester present a paper on planning as communication and on Habermasian systematic dis- tortion of communication. I was inspired. As a result, I began to listen to planning practice rather than simply look at it. One of my particular concerns is that planning theory should be grounded in prac- tice and vice versa. Talking with practitioners leads me to believe that much of what takes place in everyday practice is as yet untheorised: the power-plays of elected members on planning committees who overturn officer recommendations in front of a packed public gallery just before a local election, the tactics which officers may use to achieve policy decisions in the cause of social justice or market facilitation and so on. Talking with practitioners also suggests that consensus is rarely reached over the messy issues in planning where deep-rooted values and emotions are involved. Taking these together, I have explored theories of consensus-building and attempted to relate them to the actually existing worlds of planning practice. I have uncovered what seem to be perfectly ‘normal’ tactics of lobbying influential people,