Reflexive Modernization: The Re-enlightenment of Planning?

Abstract

In recent decades, the modern state and its institutions - including planning - have been the subjects of sustained and ultimately destabilizing critique by post-modernists. More recently, a new perspective on the 'crisis of modernity' has emerged. The theory of 'reflexive modernisation' has sought to renew both understanding of, and support for, the radical political-ethical vision of the Enlightenment. Whilst the perspective seems to have generated a vigorous debate in sociology, its impact on geography and urban planning has been much more limited, especially in Australia. This paper argues that theories of reflexive modernization are directly relevant to the concerns of the spatial sciences. In particular, I aim to show that the notion of reflexive modernization and its subsidiary concepts (e.g., risk society) can provide a powerful theoretical frame within which to place and understand the recent transformations of western urban and environmental planning systems. I draw upon the reflexive modernization thesis to describe and explain the broad changes and reform pressures that have emerged within planning in Australia.