Abstract
Faludi A. (1970) The planning environment and the meaning of “planning”, Reg. Studies 4, 1–9. A common element of all distinctive planning activities of public bodies is postulated. Systematic relationships of the character of these activities and objective features of the society in which they are undertaken are assumed. These features (e.g. level and pace of development; norms and values; political system and administrative structure; institutional structure; cleavages in society; etc.) form the planning environment. The assumed relationship is demonstrated with the example of the very meaning of “planning” itself, which is shown to differ in the United States and Great Britain in accordance with variations of the respective planning environments along three dimensions introduced as heuristic devices (blueprint planning v. process-approach; comprehensive planning v. disjointed incrementalism; normative v. functional planning). Finally it is argued that the British planning environment will approximate the American one. As a result, British planning will recapitulate certain shifts of emphasis made by its American counterpart, probably with more success, however, making use of the superior capacity for comprehensiveness of the British centralized system of government.

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