The Limits to Communicative Planning

While stuLdies undertaken by communicative planninig theorists provide valuable inisights inito everyday platnning practice, there is a growing debate arounid the need for greater acknowledgement of relationis of power atnd iniequality. In particular, communicative planning theory has tended to obscure planning's problematic relation to the state. This paper openis for debate conceptionis of public dis-course in planning that, on the one hand, draw on Habermas's notions of communiicative rationality, but on the other, fail to critically examine his positioning of these in opposition to state and economy. It is argued that the implications of critiques of Habermas's ideas nmay involve questioning the very possibility of comntLinicative planning itself.