Philosophy and politics paper

This is a side project that I’ve been working on for a while … trying to bring it back for something.

Working Title: Democracy and Urban Planning: Chomsky, Brown, and Communicative Rationality

Abstract: Communicative rationality in urban planning emerged in the 1960s in response to the failures of comprehensive and rational planning. This emerging rationality promised more inclusive avenues of participation, deliberation, and public input in the urban planning process. However, as debated within the urban planning profession, the tensions between ‘expertise’ and ‘representation’ have never been reconciled. The role of the urban planner sits uneasily with communicative rationality’s promise of local ‘democracy’ in the city. This unease was exacerbated by the ideological transformation of the role of the state, public actors, and the private market beginning in the 1980s. After discussing popular understandings of ‘democracy’ in urban planning, I present a brief genealogy of the communicative rationality literature—from foundational works of Davidoff (1965) to more recent works of Healey (1992), Hillier (2005), and Forester (2006). Then, I engage the works of Noam Chomsky and Wendy Brown, whose writings help elucidate the shortcomings of communicative rationality in the context of a hallowing out of democracy and a reworking of the citizen. I conclude with reflections on power analysis scholarship that attempts to locate democracy in planning.

~What are your thoughts? Help me out in the comments below.~