Professional Ethics and Beyond: Values in Planning

Abstract

Professionalization of planning and the credentialing processes that will accompany it add importance to a review of the role of professional ethics in planning. Existing ethical standards are often inherently contradictory, guild oriented, and inconsistent with the public image the profession attempts to maintain. The more publicly oriented prescriptions are not designed to be enforced. Generally they are a weak guide to ethical conduct for practicing planners.

Planning theories suggest ethical standards going beyond professional prescriptions. A historical or structural approach would further suggest that professionally derived standards will be inherently system maintaining and that efforts to inject more progressive and enforceable guidelines into professional codes are likely to meet major resistance within the profession.