An Agentive Perspective of Urban Planning

Abstract

Within the last decade the founding of such organisations as the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), the Design Methods Group and journals such as Environment and Behavior , as well as the establishment of new areas of study, for example Environmental Psychology and Ecological Psychology, have promised much for urban planning. To date the contribution of all these developments, defined generally as the field of environmental perception and cognition as affecting environmental behaviour and experience, has been almost exclusively to the substantive, rather than to the procedural, aspect of planning theory.1 The importance of the procedural aspect of planning theory can be seen from Faludi's definition.2 He defines procedural theory as the ways in which planners operate and understand themselves and as that which provides a sound intellectual basis for their activities of planning. As Faludi points out, however, substantive and procedural aspects of planning theory are not independent of one another but must be considered inter-dependent. The question is: can the environmental perception and cognition approach to spatial behaviour also contribute significantly to the procedural aspect of planning theory? This paper is an attempt to show how relevant knowledge from published studies on this approach can help the practice of urban planning. I first describe, in brief terms, the relationship of a person to the environment as one of knowledge, mediated by perception and cognition, and action. Further, I point out the need to distinguish three perspectives of man when dealing with person-environment relations. Then follows the issue of linking the individual level to the social level, which is of more practical value to urban planners. As with person-environment relations, viewpoints or perspectives of social or interpersonal relations must also be distinguished. The implications for urban planning are then outlined. The existing approach of planners is shown to be based on the objective and consensus perspectives which have a number of problems. A new approach is suggested, that of the agentive perspective combined with the consensus and conflict viewpoints.