Drama And Advocacy Planning

Abstract Recent demands for community representation in planning raise anew basic questions as to the nature of "the community." Some involvement in advocacy planning for the interests of low-income communities provided the author with experience in dealing with "community groups" in the context of political struggles over planning issues. These seemed to involve a series of staged dramatic events. It appears useful for some purposes to think of "the community" as a kind of theatrical fiction, maintained through variously staged dramatic performances. In this frame of reference, Abbie Hoffman's Yippies! and the Plan Commission's public hearing can be seen as variants on a theme.