Jerome L. Kaufman

The food system: A stranger to the planning field

Abstract Shelley Jordon describes her artwork as celebrating “the power and the beauty of domestic spaces and objects…culled from daily life.” Food is among the most basic of daily human needs, yet what is most basic often gets overlooked. Alpenrose, her image of a breakfast table, brings this human need to the fore, as authors Ka-meshwari Pothukucki and Jerome L. Kaufman argue that food systems need a place among the concerns of planners. The artist, who is an associate professor of art at Oregon State University, resides in Portland, Oregon. Her works can be found in galleries and private collections throughout the West Coast. Planning lays claim to being comprehensive, future-oriented, and public-interest driven, and of wanting to enhance the livability of communities. It is concerned with community systems—such as land use, housing, transportation, the environment, and the econ-omy—and their interconnections. The food system, however, is notable by its absence from most planning practice, research, and education. We present evidence for the limited presence of the food system in plannings list of concerns by scanning leading journals, texts, and classic writings, and by reporting on a survey of 22 U.S. city planning agencies. We analyze this low level of attention and discuss reasons and ideas for planning involvement to strengthen community food systems.1

Comparison of Current Planning Theories: Counterparts and Contradictions

Abstract This article reviews shortcomings in the synoptic, or rational comprehensive planning tradition, as well as in other, countervailing theories that have attempted to fill specific deficiencies in the synoptic tradition. The chief problem of the synoptic approach appears to be its lopsided application due to the difficulties of simultaneously bringing to bear other counterpart planning traditions. Each tradition resists blending with others; each has its own internally consistent, mutually sustaining web of methods, social philosophies, professional standards, and personal styles. Yet real world problems are not so consistent or self-contained. Effective solutions require diverse perspectives and multiple levels of action, extending beyond the scope of any contemporary American planning theory. A five-part classification of planning traditions is discussed under the heuristic rubric of SITAR, covering the Synoptic, Incremental, Transactive, Advocacy, and Radical schools of planning thought. Compari...

A Public Planning Perspective on Strategic Planning

Abstract Strategic planning based on corporate practice is being put forward and used as an approach to more effective communitywide public planning. This article critically assesses the approach by comparing it to ideas common in the planning literature and by interviewing practitioners exposed to exercises in corporate-style strategic planning in their communities. We conclude that most of the ideas subsumed in this approach have been a part of planning education for decades and that most practitioners trained as planners view the approach as “old wine in new bottles.” Nevertheless, we argue that planners should view the new popularity of corporate-style strategic planning as an opportunity to revive interest in planning.

The Ethics of Contemporary American Planners

Abstract This article, based on a study of a large, randomly selected group of American planners, looks at what planners think is ethical, and why. Although many planners have similar views about what is ethical, sharp differences are also clearly apparent. Chief among the reasons for these differences is role orientation. Consistently, the most politically oriented planners have a more liberal interpretation of what is ethical than the most technically oriented ones, with a third group—high on both the technical and political dimensions—falling in the middle. Other factors such as political views, attitude towards agency, and propensity to express values in the job were also found to be important in explaining why some planners think differently than others about what is ethical. The implications of these findings are drawn for planning theory, practice, and education.

American and Israeli Planners: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Abstract Comparative studies of planners from different countries are rare. This article reports the results of a questionnaire administered recently to representative samples of American and Israeli government planners concerning their attitudes about selected planning issues. The study finds that Israeli planners are much more favorably disposed toward expressing their own personal values in their work; more favorable toward the environment, mass transit, and low-income people; less favorable toward private developers; and more hybrid in their role orientations than American planners are. In addition, Israeli planners have a broader conception than American planners have of what constitute ethical issues in planning; Americans are inclined to think more situationally about professional ethical issues than Israelis are. The article explores reasons for the differences between the two groups and the implications of the findings for planning.

Thinking alike: Similarities in attitudes among Dutch, Spanish and American planners

Abstract Few studies have compared planners from different countries. This article reports the findings of a study of selected attitudes of a sample of Dutch, Spanish, and American planners from the mid 1990s. It looks specifically at the extent to which planners in these three countries think similarly or differently about a range of process, substantive, and work-setting issues relevant to the planning field. While differences show up on some attitudes in the process arena, we found that the three groups of planners thought much more alike than differently than the national, cultural, and planning system contexts in which they operate would have suggested. We discuss the dimensions of a common planning ideology that cuts across national boundaries and consider the implications of this finding for the planning field in a global context.

Teaching Planning Students About Strategizing, Boundary Spanning and Ethics: Part of the New Planning Theory

Recent interest in new planning theory has taken a turn toward a more normative, prescriptive action theory of planning, one that addresses how professional planners should act in pursuit of planned change to achieve greater effectiveness. This paper discusses how one planning educator— who has had 30 years of planning experience; half of it most recently in the Academy — weaves together three divergent strands of an action theory of planning in the classroom in attempting to lay the groundwork for students to become better strategists, boundary spanners and ethicists. The paper relates knowledge to pedagogy and includes a discussion of course content and instructional methods for the three courses that focus on these three roles for planners. The unifying thread connecting these divergent strands is a concern for educating students to be more effective in practice.

Reflections on Teaching Three Versions of a Planning Ethics Course

Planning ethics courses are of relatively recent vintage and not often taught. They may, however, become more common as a result of vigorous scholarly attention being given to planning ethics and the prominence ethics and values were given in the 1989 revision of the PAB accreditation curriculum guidelines. This article discusses, assesses, and draws lessons from three versions of a planning ethics class taught intermittently over the past twelve years by the author.

U.S. vs. Yonkers: A Tale of Three Planners

This article highlights the different paths that three senior-level Yonkers planners took with respect to the central issue of equity in the U.S. v. Yonkers case. Using their experiences as a backdrop, various ways are dis cussed in which planning educators can provide planning students — most of whom have strong equity values in graduate school — with the will and skills to effectively ad vance equity ends when they work for local governments. This is done in awareness of the powerful con straining force that incremental poli tics will undoubtedly have on future planners, checking or eroding their concern about equity values in their local jobs.

Land records modernization: Centers of excellence from a Wisconsin perspective

Abstract Faculty representing a variety of disciplines at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are planning for the establishment of a center of excellence in land information science, for the purpose of providing a program that develops scholars and professionals, as recommended in a recent report of the National Research Council. They have begun by identifying an interdisciplinary graduate program focused upon education, training, and research required for the development and implementation of large-scale, multipurpose land information systems within the Public Land Survey states. These discussions have identified (a) five reasons to support the concept of centers of excellence in land information studies; (b) five components that are important, if not essential, to the development of a center; and (c) three types of resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including the academic resources of seven departments, institutes, or centers offering instruction in 45 existing courses that are central to or supportive of philosophical and theoretical as well as the technical and application aspects of land records modernization; seven facilities that could provide source materials, research, and technical assistance; and three institutional cooperators. This paper reviews why centers of excellence are needed now, outlines components such a center should include, and discuss current efforts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that support the center of excellence concept.