Towards an Integrative Perspective: Bringing Ken Wilber’s Philosophy to Planning Theory and Practice

ABSTRACT

Planning is a divided profession. Perspectives diverge on fundamental themes as to which theories, methodologies, and goals for the future should be embraced. Even though this plurality of views is a sign of intellectual resourcefulness within the field, it is disconcerting the extent to which planning finds it difficult to articulate itself to effectively address persistent problems such as environmental degradation and social inequality. This paper proposes that the Wilberian philosophy can offer a valuable contribution in this regard, and particularly when integrated with the legacy of Niraj Verma. Examples from transport planning are used to illustrate the argument.

KEYWORDS:

• Integrative perspective
• Ken Wilber
• Niraj Verma
• world views
• dilemmas
• purpose-driven theory
• multiverse
• sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by: Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016431 – funded by European Structural and Investment Funds (FEEI) through - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização - COMPETE2020 and by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.

Notes on contributors

António Ferreira

António Ferreira is a Senior Researcher at CITTA – Centre for Research on Territory, Transports and Environment of the University of Porto, Portugal. In the past he has worked as a private consultant and coach in various European countries (self-employed), as a Research Fellow at the University of Leeds (UK), as a Post-doctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and – before his PhD in Civic Design at the University of Liverpool (UK) – as a Full-Time Higher Education Teacher at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). His research interests are at the moment focused on planning theory and spatial planning for change. In the past he has conducted research on transport and accessibility studies, emotions in planning, and planning education.