On the Virtues of Skillful Meandering

Abstract This article argues that planning practice can productively be understood as action in a flow of persuasive argumentation, and that planners can best be understood not as heroic experts, but as skilled-voices-in-the-flow. Drawing heavily on his experiences as a professor, an advocate, a candidate for elected office, and a city council member, the author suggests that acting as a skilled-voice-in-the-flow evokes emotions that become embodied, and that such embodied emotions are an extremely important but largely neglected part of planning practice. The article concludes with a discussion of what this perspective implies for the education of future planners.