The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning

Drawing upon the work of such theorists as Foucault, Habermas, Toulmin and Wittgenstein, this book brings recent work on language and argumentation to bear on the practical concerns of policy analysis and planning. The European and US contributors to the book examine the interplay of language, action and power in terms of both applied policy and theoretical debates. Emphasizing the political nature of the work of planners and policy-makers, the book stresses the role of persuasive arguments in practical decision contexts. Recognizing the rhetorical, communicative character of planning and policy deliberations, the writers demonstrate that policy arguments are necessarily selective, both shaping and being shaped by power relations. This book reveals the practices of planners and policy-makers in new ways, as matters of practical argumentation in complex and highly political environments. It makes an important contribution to current debates about post-empiricism in the social sciences and policy studies. As such, it should be of considerable interest to readers with an interest in planning and public policy-making in such fields as urban and regional planning, public administration, public policy studies and political science. Forester's other publications include "Urban and Regional Planning in An Age of Austerity" (with Pierre Chavell and William Goldsmith), "Critical Theory and Public Life" (editor), "Policy Making, Communications, and Social Learning" (editor with Guy Adams and Bayard Catron, and "Confronting Values in Policy Analysis" (with Frank Fischer). Fischer's other publications "Politics, Values and Public Policy" and "Technocracy and the Politics of Expertise: Organization and Policy in the Postindustrial Transition".