Planning and Crisis, Planning in Crisis

Abstract

How does a profession that prides itself on standing for the common good and working through action –not mere analysis or gesturing- demonstrate its effectiveness in a city devastated by intractable political, economic, financial, health, and social crises? In this essay, I dive into the current context of planning in Beirut (Lebanon) where I have been deeply engaged for decades. Recognizing that planning is deeply embedded in the making of the ongoing overlapping crises in the country, I propose three pathways for thinking about a possible positive role for planning in these circumstances: (i) to (re)construct a source of legitimacy for planning by reconsidering who has custody over the planning process and how the legitimacy of planning is secured; (ii) to accept a “tactical” practice in which grand schemes are replaced with tentative, experimental, and incremental micro-interventions that may succeed or not in reaching an integrated vision and, (iii) to activate the performative dimension of planning, its ability to imagine shared spaces and allow for transgressing contemporary limited realities.