Planning

Definition (Erich Jantsch)
Definition (Peter Hall)
Definition (C. West Churchman)
Definition (Hans Ozbekhan)
Definition (George Chadwick)
Definition (Union of International Associations)
Plan (Abraham Kaplan)
Plan (Richard M. Cyert and James G. March)
Plan (Fremont E. Kast and James E. Rosenzweig)
Plan (George Miller, Eugene Galanter and Karl Pribram)
Plan (Hans Ozbekhan)
Function (Hans Ozbekhan)
Function (Andreas Faludi)
Function (Jean-Michel Hoc)
Planning as problem solving (Hans Ozbekhan)
Values (Paul Davidoff & Thomas A. Reiner)
Values (George Miller, Eugene Galanter and Karl Pribram)
Norms and values (Hans Ozbekhan)
Features (Fremont E. Kast and James E. Rosenzweig)
Features (Edgar A. Rose)
Features (Geoffrey R. Crook)
Features (George Chadwick)
Features (Erich Jantsch)
Features (Herbert A. Simon)
Features (Hans Ozbekhan)
Process (George Chadwick)
Process (Fremont E. Kast and James E. Rosenzweig)
Process (George Miller, Eugene Galanter and Karl Pribram)
Process (Edward C. Banfield)
Process (J. Brian McLoughlin)
Process (Peter Hall)
Types of planning (Andreas Faludi)
Comprehensive planning (Mario Camhis)
Comprehensive planning (Fremont E. Kast and James E. Rosenzweig)
Allocative planning (John Friedmann)
Transactive planning (Mario Camhis)
Transactive planning (Herbert J. Gans)
Advocate planning (Paul Davidoff & Thomas A. Reiner)
Contingency planning (H. Igor Ansoff)
Requirements (Jay W. Forrester)
Requirements (Andreas Faludi)
Requirements (Herbert J. Gans)
Requirements (J. Brian McLoughlin)
Requirements (Erich Jantsch)
Requirements (George Chadwick)
Requirements (Hans Ozbekhan)
Requirements (Edgar A. Rose)
Requirements (Aurelio Peccei)
Requirements (Robert H. Rea)
Means/ends (Pierre Massé)
Means/ends (George Chadwick)
Means/ends (Edgar A. Rose)
Information (J. Brian McLoughlin)

Definition

[1972] Erich Jantsch, Technological Planning and Social Futures, Associated Business Programmes, London
“Planning is long-range thinking affecting action in the present ”. (Introduction p. 4)

[1977, First edition 1975] Peter Hall, Urban & Regional Planning, Penguin, Harmondsworth
“Planning is concerned with deliberately achieving some objective, and it proceeds by assembling actions into some orderly sequence.” (p. 3)
“To summarize, then: planning as a general activity is the making of an orderly sequence of action that will lead to the achievement of a stated goal or goals.” (p. 6)
“... a swing away from the old idea of planning as production of blueprints for the future desired state of the area, and towards the new idea of planning as a continuous series of controls over the development of the area, aided by devices which seek to model or simulate the process of development so that this control can be applied.” (p. 12)

[1979, First edition 1968] C. West Churchman, The Systems Approach, Dell Publishing, New York
“Planning is concerned with multistage decision making. Hence it must study (1) a decision maker who (2) chooses among alternative courses of action in order to reach (3) certain first-stage goals, which lead to (4) other-stage objectives.” (p. 150)

[1968] Hans Ozbekhan, in Jantsch, Eric ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
... planning, that is acting on an object in preconceived ways for the purpose of effecting preconceived changes in it.” (p. 56)
... plans are in fact policies.” (p. 74)
Planning is ... a human social activity which is designed to act on the environment for the purpose of changing it in such a way that tendencies toward coherence and cohesion are enhanced and tendencies toward disintegration and dissolution are kept under check. In other words, planning is a process whose function is to reduce entropy and increase organization within the environment.” (p. 111)
Planning ... is a future-directed decision continuum that can be visualized as a three-level structure [normative, strategic, operational] and as a multi-phased process. The process consists of various functional relations that tie these decisions into a complex network of action flows and control mechanisms. Within such a system three general classes of functions must be recognized and considered:
1) administrative functions that insure the system’s internal coherence and govern, at the operational level, the implementation of the decision taken at the two higher levels;
2) goal-settings functions which I shall view as corresponding to executive decision making at the strategic level of our model;
3) norm-seeking functions which are the core of ‘normative’ planning and correspond to what usually goes under the name of policy making.” (p. 135)

[1971] George Chadwick, A Systems View of Planning, Pergamon Press, Oxford
“Planning is a process, a process of human thought and action based upon that thought - in point of fact, forethought, thought for the future.” (p. 24)

[1986, Second Edition] Union of International Associations eds., Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential, K.G.Saur, München
1. Action on the environment for the purpose of changing it in such a way that tendencies toward coherence and cohesion are enhanced and tendencies toward disintegration and dissolution are kept under check; namely, it is a process whose function is to reduce entropy and increase organization within the environment.
2. A goal-directed decision-making process.
3. The formalization of factors involved in determining the goals and the establishment of the decision processes to achieve these goals.
4. The systematic enrichment of the information-base for decision-making (pointing out consequences for the future of alternative courses of action taken in the present, and consequences for present action of alternative goals in the future).
5. The process of developing a complex dynamic system designed in the form of a controlling event-structure whose function is to effect in its environment (which is another complex dynamic system), the kind of organized change which current values define as progress.
6. The process of making, changing, or coordinating plans which are sequences of future actions to which a person, unit or organization is committed." (KC0025)

Plan

[1964] Abraham Kaplan, The Conduct of Inquiry. Methodology for Behavioral Science, Chandler Publishing Co., Scranton
- “... a plan is a configuration of goals, presented as consistent with each other and as grounded in the facts of the case, and specified in terms of an action sequence expected to lead to their attainment. Planning has particularly the function of jointly determining ends and means.” (p. 404)

[1964] Richard M. Cyert and James G. March, A Behavioral Theory of the Firm
"... we can make four observations on plans within an organization :
1. A plan is a goal.
2. A plan is a schedule. It specifies intermediate steps to a predicted outcome.
3. A plan is a theory. Specifies relationships between factors.
4. A plan is a precedent. It defines the decisions of one year and thereby establishes a prima facie case for continuing existing decisions." (Chapter 5, p. 111)

[1979, Third Edition] Fremont E. Kast & James E. Rosenzweig, Organization and Management, McGraw-Hill
A plan is any detailed method, formulated beforehand, for doing or making something. Planning is the process of deciding in advance what is to be done and how. It involves determining overall missions, identifying key results areas, and setting specific objectives as well as developing policies, programs, and procedures for achieving them.” (p. 416)
“In short, a plan is a predetermined course of action.” (p. 417)

[1979, First U.S.A. edition 1960] George A. Miller; Eugene Galanter & Karl H. Pribram, Plans and the Structure of Behaviour, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, London
A Plan is any hierarchical process in the organism that can control the order in which a sequence of operations is to be performed.” (p. 16)
Moreover, we shall also use the term ‘Plan’ to designate a rough sketch of some course of action, just the major topic headings in the outline, as well as the completely detailed specification of every detailed operation.” (p. 17)

[1968] Hans Ozbekhan in Eric Jantsch, ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
“1. A plan is a complex dynamic system designed in the form of a controlling event-structure whose function is to effect in its environment ... the kind of organized change which current values define as ‘progress’.”
2. The structure of the plan can be visualized as having three hierarchically related levels:
- (a) an operational level at which the plan is mainly mechanictic in character;
- (b) a higher, strategic, level at which the plan is kinetic in character;
- (c) a still higher, normative, level at which the plan is telic in character.
3. All plans fulfil their functions under two general types of control:
- (a) controls that pertain specifically to each level of their structure;
- (b) controls that emanate from the laws - both natural and human - that control the environment.”
These control work in the following way:
- (a) the normative plan ... delimits the operation of the strategic plan by imposing on it a boundary [norms];
- (b) the strategic plan ... relies on the mechanics of the operational plan and on the environmental inputs below it. It reduces the scope of the operational plan by imposing on it a boundary that brings it into the service of the strategies defined as parts of it.
- (c) the operational plan ... needs inputs from the environment. It limits the scope of ... these inputs by imposing boundaries upon them (selectivity) that cause them to be brought into the service of the operations defined for it.” (pp. 133-134)

Function

[1968] Hans Ozbekhan in Eric Jantsch, ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
“... planning, that is acting on an object in preconceived ways for the purpose of effecting preconceived changes in it.” (p. 56)
- “... plans are in fact policies.” (p.74) (against the dicotomy values-techniques)
- “Planning is ... a human social activity which is designed to act on the environment for the purpose of changing it in such a way that tendencies toward coherence and cohesion are enhanced and tendencies toward disintegration and dissolution are kept under check. In other words, planning is a process whose function is to reduce entropy and increase organization within the environment.” (p. 111)
+ “Planning ... is a future-directed decision continuum that can be visualized as a three-level structure [normative, strategic, operational] and as a multi-phased process. The process consists of various functional relations that tie these decisions into a complex network of action flows and control mechanisms. Within such a system three general classes of functions must be recognized and considered:
- (1) administrative functions that insure the system’s internal coherence and govern, at the operational level, the implementation of the decision taken at the two higher levels;
- (2) goal-settings functions which I shall view as corresponding to executive decision making at the strategic level of our model;
- (3) norm-seeking functions which are the core of ‘normative’ planning and correspond to what usually goes under the name of policy making.” (p. 135)
There are three levels of functional relations between a plan and the environment:
- (a) policy making functions which result in normative planning [new norms];
- (b) goal-setting functions which result in strategic plans [allocation of resources];
- (c) administrativre functions which lead to operational planning [implementing, scheduling, etc.]” (p. 153)

[1976, First edition 1973] Andreas Faludi, Planning Theory, Pergamon Press, Oxford
I shall try to specify the rationale of planning theory as that of planning promoting human growth by the use of rational procedures of thought and action.” (p. 35)
“Planning promotes human growth as a product in two ways. Firstly, it identifies the best way of attaining ends. Secondly, it contributes to learning, and hence to future growth. Lastly, as regards human growth as a process, planning may be identified as a vehicle for controlling and accelerating that process.” (p. 35)

[1988] Jean-Michel Hoc, Cognitive Psychology of Planning, Academic Press, London
“Planning is one of the most valuable resources of cognitive activity. It enables individuals to cope with changing and complex situations. Through anticipation, it guides decision-making by taking possible or probable future events into account. By introducing hierarchies into representational structures it reduces complexity.” (p. 1)
“A plan is a schematic order and/or hierarchical representation whose function is to guide activity.” (p. 84)
“Declarative plans represent static relational structures, whereas procedural plans represent procedures. Planning is defined as the elaboration and/or implementation of plans.” (p. 84)

Planning as problem solving

[1968] Hans Ozbekhan in Eric Jantsch, ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
“If planning is viewed as a problem-solving device, then the emphasis of action is to bring changes in the environment while leaving the value system untouched and thus to achieve consonance between the two. If planning is viewed as a continuous organization of progress throughout the environment, then it become necessary to effect changes in the value system as well as in the environment to achieve consonance between the two.” (p. 152)

Values

[1973] Paul Davidoff & Thomas A. Reiner, A Choice Theory of Planning, in Andreas Faludi, ed., A Reader in Planning Theory, Pergamon Press, Oxford
“We plan in a world of limited knowledge, a world in which facts are probabilistic and values debatable. Under such circumstances ‘correct’ decisions do not exist. The merit of a decision can only be appraised by values held individually or in a collectivity, but such values, as we have pointed out, are not verifiable.” (pp. 27-28)

[1979, First U.S.A. Edition 1960] George A. Miller; Eugene Galanter & Karl H. Pribram, Plans and the Structure of Behaviour, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, London
“As Gordon Allport has pointed out, it is better to plan toward a kind of continual ‘becoming’ than toward a final goal. The problem is to sustain life, to formulate enduring Plans, not to terminate living and planning as if they were tasks that had to be finished.” (p. 114)

Norms and values

[1968] Hans Ozbekhan in Eric Jantsch, ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
“[Strategic] Planning does not merely define aspirations, but also alternative ways and means of fulfilling these aspirations. It permits the envisioning of activities or behavior extended over time and mapped out in such a way that from every interim decision node there flow a number of consequences which must be judged in accordance with the norms and values that have initially permitted the new definitions of the ends, the objectives, and the goals of action. It is thanks to these interconnections of norms and strategies that value extends its dominion.” (p. 131)

Features

[1979, Third Edition] Fremont E. Kast & James E. Rosenzweig, Organization and Management, McGraw-Hill
1. Repetitiveness (p. 430)
- single-use plans : plans for nonrepetitive problems;
- standing plans : plans for repetitive action;
2. Time span (p. 431)
- long-range plans;
- short-range plans;
The designation "long range" varies by organizations (p. 432)
3. Scope (p. 433)
- functional
- project
- comprehensive
4. Flexibility (p. 435)
“Organizations can compromise on the rigidity-versus-flexibility dimension by developing relatively fixed short-term operational plans under the general umbrella of more flexible, longer-range, strategic plans.” (p. 436)

[1974] Edgar A. Rose in Michael Bruton ed., The Spirit and Purpose of Planning, Hutchinson, London
“Planning is concerned with resource allocation, programmes and projects, co-ordination and guidance, and conflict resolution.” (p. 54)

[1974] Geoffrey R. Crook in Michael Bruton ed., The Spirit and Purpose of Planning, Hutchinson, London
“Planning activity of any kind is concerned with change. Physical planning, as a distinctive form of planning, is essentially concerned with changes within the physical environment.” (p. 85)

[1971] George Chadwick, A Systems View of Planning, Pergamon Press, Oxford
“... we plan toward a continual kind of ‘becoming’, rather than a final goal.” (p. 24)
“Planning is future-oriented, and thus optimistic, for it assumes man’s ability to control his own destiny, at least within certain limits.” (p. 25)

[1972] Erich Jantsch, Technological Planning and Social Futures, Associated Business Programmes, London
“The essential features of the new planning [are]:
(1) The general introduction of normative thinking and valuation into planning, making it non-deterministic and future-creative, and placing emphasis on invention through forecasting;
(2) The recognition of system design as the central subject of planning, making it non-linear (i.e. acting upon structures rather than variables of systems) and simultaneous in its general approach;
(3) The conception of three levels - normative or policy planning (the ‘ought’), strategic planning (the ‘can’), and tactic or operational planning (the ‘will’) - in whose interaction the ‘new’, future-creative planning unfolds.” (Chapter 2, p. 14)

[1965, First edition 1945] Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behavior, The Free Press, New York
“The psychological processes involved in planning consist in selecting general criteria of choice, and then particularizing them by application to specific situations.” (p. 99)

[1968] Hans Ozbekhan in Eric Jantsch, ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
“1. Entropy. Planning tends to reduce entropy through routinization or the introduction of higher levels of organization.
2. Self-Regulation and Self-Adaptation. Planning at different levels achieves varying forms of self-regulation and adaptation, ranging from pure cybernation to anticipatory response to events.
3. Equifinality. Closed planning is mechanistic and deterministic; at higher levels it consists of non-deterministic human action.
4. Causality. Closed planning is causal; higher, open planning systems are non-causal.
5. Feedback. Feedback in planning systems is goal-derived and varies from pre-determined reactions in closed systems to flexible, creative adaptation in open systems.”
("Toward a General Theory of Planning", p. 117)

Process

[1979, Third Edition] Fremont E. Kast & James E. Rosenzweig, Organization and Management, McGraw-Hill
“A plan is any detailed method, formulated beforehand, for doing or making something. Planning is the process of deciding in advance what is to be done and how. It involves determining overall missions, identifying key results areas, and setting specific objectives as well as developing policies, programs, and procedures for achieving them.” (p. 416)
“In short, a plan is a predetermined course of action.” (p. 417)

[1979, First U.S.A. edition 1960] George A. Miller; Eugene Galanter & Karl H. Pribram, Plans and the Structure of Behaviour, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, London
“A Plan is any hierarchical process in the organism that can control the order in which a sequence of operations is to be performed.” (p. 16)
“Moreover, we shall also use the term ‘Plan’ to designate a rough sketch of some course of action, just the major topic headings in the outline, as well as the completely detailed specification of every detailed operation.” (p. 17)

[1973] Edward C. Banfield, Ends and Means in Planning, in Andreas Faludi, ed., A Reader in Planning Theory, Pergamon Press, Oxford
- “A plan is a decision with regard to a course of action. A course of action is a sequence of acts which are mutually related as means and are therefore viewed as a unit; it is the unit which is the plan.” (p. 140)
+ “The process by which a plan is rationally made may conveniently be described under four main headings:
- 1. Analysis of the situation
- 2. End reduction and elaboration
- 3. The design of courses of action
- 4. The comparative evaluation of consequences.” (pp. 141-142)

[1973, First edition 1969] J. Brian McLoughlin, Urban and Regional Planning. A Systems Approach, Faber, London
"We can summarise the planning process as a series of steps or phases in a cycle:
1. The decision to adopt planning and as to what methods of planning to adopt.
2. Goals formulation and the identification of objectives..
3. Possible courses of action are studied with the aid of models of the environment.
4. Evaluation of these courses of action in order to select an operational course
5. Action to implement the plan.
6. Review the plan and its control mechanism from time to time, in minor ways at shorter intervals and in major ways at larger intervals." (Chapter 5, pp. 102-103)
“... there are no neat and tidy sub-divisions of the planning process: goal-seeking interacts with simulation which itself is inseparable from survey information; development control is closely linked at intervals with review and the reformulation of goals and objectives. Evaluation occurs at many points in the design of the alternatives themselves.” (Chapter 10, p. 263)

[1977, First edition 1975] Peter Hall, Urban & Regional Planning, Penguin, Harmondsworth
“Formerly ... the classic sequence taught to all planning students was survey-analysis-plan.” (p. 12)
“The new planning sequence ... can be said to start with the formulation of goals and objectives for the development of the area concerned. (These should be continuously refined and redefined during the cycles of the planning process). Against this background the planner develops an information system which is continuously updated as the region develops and changes. It will be used to produce various alternative projections, or simulations of the state of the region at various future dates, assuming the application of various policies.” “Then the alternatives are compared or evaluated against yardsticks derived from the goals and objectives, to produce a recommended system of policy controls which in turn will be modified as the objectives are reexamined and as the information system produces evidence of new developments.” “...the new sequence might be described as : goals - continuous information-projection and simulation of alternative futures - evaluation - choice - continuous monitoring.” (pp. 12-13)

Types of planning

[1976, First edition 1973] Andreas Faludi, Planning Theory, Pergamon Press, Oxford
- The blueprint (firm image and high degree of control) vs. the process mode (uncertain image modified during implementation to take new information into consideration and low degree of control that ask for flexibility in responding to new unexpected situations).
- The rational-comprehensive (holistic) vs. the disjointed-incrementalist (atomistic);
- The normative (goals and objectives are part of the planner space) vs. the functional (goals and objectives come from outside the planner space). (p.128 and subsequent chapters)

Comprehensive planning

[1979] Mario Camhis, Planning Theory and Philosophy, Tavistock Publications, London
“Its requirements [rational comprehensive planning] are the following:
(1) A general set of values expressed as goals and objectives.
2) Generation and examination of all alternatives open for achieving the goals.
3) The prediction of all consequences that would follow from the adoption of each alternative.
4) The comparison of the consequences in relation to the agreed set of goals and objectives.
5) The selection of the alternative whose consequences correspond to a greater degree with the goals and objectives.” (p. 30)

[1979, Third Edition] Fremont E. Kast & James E. Rosenzweig, Organization and Management, McGraw-Hill
“Comprehensive planning is an integrative activity that seeks to maximize the total effectiveness of an organization as a system in accordance with its objectives.” (p. 417)

Allocative planning

[1973] John Friedmann, A Conceptual Model for the Analysis of Planning Behavior, in Andreas Faludi ed., A Reader in Planning Theory, Pergamon Press, Oxford
“Allocative planning must be comprehensive with respect to at least the following : (a) the interdependence among all of the explicitly stated objectives of the system (or subsystem), (b) the interdependence in the use of all available resources of the system (or subsystem), and (c) the influence of all external variables on the setting of intermediate targets.” (p. 357)
“The optimality criterion, the basic norm for allocative planning, requires a balance among the variable components of the planning system.” (p. 358)

Transactive planning

[1979] Mario Camhis, Planning Theory and Philosophy, Tavistock Publications, London
“The main element of transactive planning is dialogue.” (p. 77)

[1972, First edition 1968] Herbert J. Gans, People and Plans. Essays on Urban Problems and Solutions, Penguin, Harmondsworth
“The most important role of the planner is, however, to tell the community and its leaders that if they want to achieve Goal X, they must institute Programme Y, requiring certain costs and resulting in certain consequences, and if they want to achieve Goal A, they must implement Programme B.” (pp. 99-100)

Advocate planning

[1973] Paul Davidoff & Thomas A. Reiner, A Choice Theory of Planning, in Faludi, Andreas ed., A Reader in Planning Theory, Pergamon Press, Oxford
“Planning is a set of procedures.”
“We define planning as a process for determining appropriate future action through a sequence of choices.”
“Planning incorporates a notion of goals. Action embodies specifics, and so we face the question of relating general ends and particular means.”
“The choices which constitute the planning process are made at three levels: first, the selection of ends and criteria; second, the identification of a set of alternatives consistent with these general prescriptives, and the selection of a desired alternative; and third, guidance of action toward determined ends. Each of these choices requires the exercise of judgment; judgment permeates planning.” (pp. 11-12)

Contingency planning

[1968, First Edition 1965] H. Igor Ansoff, Corporate Strategy
“A contingent event is recognized, such as a periodic need to work overtime, or a snowstorm. What needs to be done and the outcomes of such contingencies are well known ; the contingencies are repetitive, but the time of specific occurrences cannot be specified in advance. In view of this, it is not worth wile to require a new decision on what should be done each time overtime is needed or each time it snows. A better and more economical procedure is to prescribe, in advance, the response to be made whenever a specified contingency occurs. This is done through a written statement of the appropriate policy and of accompanying procedures for its implementation.” (Chapter 6, p. 106)

Requirements

[1968] Jay W. Forrester in Eric Jantsch, ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
“Planning, instead of dealing with problems and their solutions, could deal with the design of social systems to produce systems less likely to generate problems.” (p. 237)
“Good planning based on a deep insight into the behavior of complex systems will attempt to release the internal power, initiative, driving force, enthusiasm, and human potential of the people in the system. It will do this instead of heaping more work, more discipline, more repression, and more coordination on them in an effort to push back a social system that is still trying to go in the wrong direction.” (p. 245)
“If planning in social systems is to be effective, it must deal with the internal mechanisms of such systems.” (p. 254)

[1976, First edition 1973] Andreas Faludi, Planning Theory, Pergamon Press, Oxford
"A person with an intelligent mind engaging in planning
- operates on the environment drawing resources from it and transforming it.
He does not deplete his resources but uses them with careful foresight;
- operates consciously, that is he is aware of his own thoughts, commitments, the impact of his actions, and their interrelations. From this awareness he draws strength by including the changing of himself into the range of available options, and thus increasing his chances of growth;
- is aware also of his limitations, and in particular of the number of options which he can explore and evaluate. On the basis of this awareness, he devises strategies for coping with such limitations by directing his own thought processes to areas where they may achieve the best results;
- knows when to break off any process of search in favour of action. He thus strikes a balance between his longing for security and the desire to act out his commitments."
(from Chapter 4, p. 55)

[1972, First edition 1968] Herbert J. Gans, People and Plans. Essays on Urban Problems and Solutions, Penguin, Harmondsworth
“Any methodology for societal planning must fulfil three criteria:
- First, it must help to provide answers to planning decisions. The answers necessary can be summarized in the following list of questions:
a) how much - i.e. quantity of resources?
b) of what - i.e. programmes?
(c) for whom - i.e. for what clients?
d) why - i.e. to achieve what goals?
e) for how much - i.e what social and economic costs ?
f) under what conditions - i.e. with what other consequences ?
- Second, the methodology must provide techniques for goal choice, for the selection of programmes to achieve these goals, and for determining the consequences of these programmes on costs and the functioning of the society.
- Third, the methodology dealing with goal choice must be flexible to allow for the multiplicity of goals and interests in society and for the changes these are undergoing over time.” (pp. 105-106)

[1973, First edition 1969] J. Brian McLoughlin, Urban and Regional Planning. A Systems Approach, Faber, London
- “The first [guiding principle in planning] derives from Friedmann’s notion of
comprehensiveness which he defines as pertaining to the system as a whole, rather than to any sub-part or sub-system.”
- “The second is that the goal and objectives are ultimately expressed as
performance standards for the system and it is from these that we must
derive the criteria by which to judge, test and evaluate the alternatives set up.”
- “We can therefore state as the over-riding principle that evaluation of
alternative plans must be based on attempts to show how far each plan
satisfies all the objectives which have been adopted for the planning exercise.” (Chapter 10, p. 265)

[1972] Erich Jantsch, Technological Planning and Social Futures, Associated Business Programmes, London
“The ‘future-creative’ planning process should be:
- based on decentralised initiative and centralised synthesis, requiring effective communication ...
- not responsible for decision-making, but providing rather the full information base for decision making in a systematic manner.” (Chapter 9, p. 139)

[1971] George Chadwick, A Systems View of Planning, Pergamon Press, Oxford
“Widening the range of choice is perhaps the best and only way of describing what town and regional planning ought to be about.” (Chapter 14, p. 332)

[1968] Hans Ozbekhan in Eric Jantsch, ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
“In terms ... of the planning construct we have been attempting to build we must conclude that the emergence of human reality as an ecosystem, which provides its dynamics to our situation, is a most important event and it is in the concept of balance, at the heart of that concept, that any planning at the normative level must find its guiding principles.” ("Toward a General Theory of Planning", p. 151)

[1974] Edgar A. Rose in Michael J. Bruton, editor The Spirit and Purpose of Planning
“The essential features of the kind of planning envisaged here are:
(a) Integrating in approach and multidisciplinary in character.
(b) Normative and self-directing; concerned with choice, preference and goals.
(c) Adaptive to change - continuously modifying ends and means, preferences and goals.
(d) Democratic and participatory.
(e) Based on adequate information and consideration of alternative courses of action.”
("Philosophy and Purpose of Planning", pp. 27-28)

[1968] Aurelio Peccei in Eric Jantsch, ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
“Planning, nay the functioning itself of society, requires centralized synthesis and decentralized, capillary, ‘participation’ - which implies that the entire arc of the decision-implementation process is structured on a continuum of feedbacks at the individual level - the exercise of progressively enacting the new planning will produce also this essential educational dividend.” (p. 518)

[1968] Robert H. Rea in Eric Jantsch, ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
Decentralisation. “Planning functions in organizational design should be performed at the lowest possible level.” (p. 522)

Means/ends

[1965] Pierre Massé, Le Plan ou l’Anti-hasard, Gallimard, Paris
La relation entre les objectifs que l’on s’assigne et les moyens que l’on met en ouvre pour les atteindre est au coeur de la planification.” (p. 177)
“ne pas être au dessus des ressources, ne pas être au-dessous des objectifs.” (p. 190)
“Les contraintes délimitent le domaine des solutions admissibles: la solution optimale est celle des solutions admissibles qui entraîne le plus haut revenu à partir de ressouces données ou permet de desservir au moindre coût des objectifs donnés.” (p. 190)

[1971] George Chadwick, A Systems View of Planning, Pergamon Press, Oxford
“Planning can be seen essentially as a process of determining goals and designing means by which those goals may be achieved.” (p. 127 from Young 1966)

[1974] Edgar A. Rose, Philosophy and purpose of planning in Michael Bruton, ed. The Spirit and Purpose of Planning, Hutchinson, London
- “... planning may be considered as an ends-means continuum if it is to be an effective social instrument of change and choice.” (p. 44)

Information

[1973, First edition 1969] J. Brian McLoughlin, Urban and Regional Planning. A Systems Approach, Faber, London
“One of the prime elements which unifies planning is information since the planning is in essence a management operation characterised by positive control and guidance.” (p. 288)
“One essential point is that the technical and administrative channels of communication should be firmly established and continually nourished by supplies of information. The other is that the operations called plan-making, control, implementation and review are integrated within a cybernetic framework; also, planning may be regarded as a servo-system by which society seeks to amplify its powers of controlling the evolution of cities and regions.” (p. 294)

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