Collaboration as a professional value attribute in urban planning & planning education : a social practice perspective

Abstract

Although the profession of urban planning subscribes to an action orientation as well as a value orientation, it seems in recent years that the ‘action orientation' - influenced by neoliberal and technocratic tendencies - have been a driving force in contemporary urban planning decision making. This neoliberal position is challenging the urban planning ethos of the common good. The logic being followed in this study is that professional value attributes - and specifically collaboration as an embodiment of the common good - are central to an appropriate response to current and future neoliberal and market forces. Although the importance of professional value attributes is well documented and recognised in literature, it fails to make tangible and visible those hidden and assumed qualities or dimensions of one value attribute in particular namely collaboration. In order to respond to this shortcoming, this study focussed on two research questions: ‘What are the dimensions that constitute collaboration as a value attribute in urban planning and planning education?’ and ‘How do the collaboration dimensions manifest in the lived experiences of expert collaborative practitioners?’ With the aim of responding to the two research questions, a qualitative exploration was undertaken. This exploration followed two distinct approaches: first, linking social practice theory, collaborative planning theories and collaborative learning theories by means of a novel method of a ‘relational reading of text’. What emerged from this process was a conceptual framework, called the ‘Collaboration as a Social Practice’ (CoSoP) framework. In order to concretise the highly theoretical and abstract CoSoP framework, a second approach was followed by applying another innovative method of engaging with participants: a ‘conversational exploration’. The objective of the conversational exploration was to position the dimensions of the CoSoP framework within collaborative practices. Conversations with expert collaborative practitioners revealed fifteen themes and five constructs that are put forward as the essential elements to be considered and included in any collaborative endeavour. The significance of this study is to be found in its effort to foreground professional value attributes in the current and future practice of urban planning and planning education. This is done by making visible the abstract concept of ‘collaboration as a value attribute’ as revealed in the dimensions of the CoSoP framework and the themes and constructs that emerged from the practitioner context.