Limits and potentials to deliberative engagement in highly regulated planning systems: Norm development within fixed rules

Abstract

Planning practice requires ongoing interaction between regulatory “facts” and deliberative “norms”. Played out in local and strategic developments, “norms” are the agreed values and positions developed by advancing deliberative engagement of residents; while “facts” are the more rigid statutory procedures through which planning decisions are typically made. However, conflict arises between residents' groups and local government decision-makers when deliberative norms, now a key tenet of strategic planning processes, struggle to gain traction in the factual spaces provided by statutory planning regulations. A contentious planning process in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia (concerning the redevelopment of a car park into a commercial and public space) highlights the challenges to deliberative engagement in highly-regulatory planning systems. Drawing on this contested case, this paper examines how the broader formal and relatively fixed framework of regulatory-based decision-making fails to support participatory principles, undermining both the desired communicative ethos and enduring collaborative outcomes and norm development. Specifically, the paper problematises tensions between residents' growing expectations for greater transparency and participation in planning, arising from a growing regard for deliberation in strategic planning, and the hegemonic nature of statutory planning that preserves planning control within the formal domain of government and the private sector.

Keywords::

• deliberative engagement
• Habermas
• facts
• norms
• decision-making

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Crystal Legacy

Crystal Legacy is a lecturer at the School of Urban, Global and Social Studies, RMIT University. Her research interests focus on the institutional, political and social barriers to change and the role of urban governance and deliberative democracy in addressing those barriers. She is the co-editor of the book Building Inclusive Cities: Women's Safety and the Right to the City.

Alan March

Alan March lectures in urban planning at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. He has a background in planning practice and teaches urban design, planning law and theory. His research examines the governance mechanisms of urban planning and democratic theory.

Clare M. Mouat

Clare Mouat is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography and Planning at the University of Western Australia where she researches community relations, urban governance, strategic metropolitan planning, political theory, and urban futures. Her PhD (Rethinking community in planning: A review of the role of planners and citizens in building strong communities) and recent articles on super-sizing cities, and using conflict productively in planning show her passion for planning just and inclusive cities. She champions political thinking about how we learn to disagree, live harmoniously in high-rise housing, and plan for community governance in smaller and larger cities.