Perspectives on the Public Interest and Social Justice in Planning

“Social justice” and “public interest” have traditionally been fundamental concepts for most planning theories. The planning literature about these concepts has become a complex set of interpretations that make it difficult to explain the relationship between the two concepts. The current article attempts to shed light on this conceptual confusion about the relationship between these concepts by using the meta-synthesis method. This meta-synthesis leads to the identification of four distinct perspectives “Utilitarians,” “Democratic Proceduralists,” “Structuralists,” and “Post-structuralists.” Each of which places them in different positions from each other according to their distinct definitions of these concepts.