Plan and counterplan: Notes on moving beyond the crisis in planning theory

Abstract

In developing a working class perspective of planning theory, I have suggested that neither bourgeois nor Marxist planning theories can incorporate the dissensus tactics that are at the heart of working-class movements. Neither can they deal with the class nature of planning nor the class composition of planners. As the current social, political and economic crisis was forced on capital by the struggles (plans) of the working class, it follows that working-class counter-plans should deepen the crisis so that benefits will accrue to “our” side. The development of “our” successful counter-plans will throw “their” planning theory deeper into crisis. Ultimately, crisis resolution must be on the terms of the (ex-)working class.