Shadows of Power

This text examines public policy, in particular, the communicative processes of policy and decision-making. It explores the important who, how and why issues of policy decisions. Who really takes the decisions? How are they arrived at and why were such processes used? What relations of power may be revealed between the various participants? Using stories from real planning practice, this book shows that local planning decisions, particularly those which involve consideration of issues of "public space" cannot be understood separately from the socially constructed, subjective territorial identities, meanings and values of the local people and the planners concerned. Nor can it be fully represented as a linear planning process concentrating on traditional planning policy-making and decision-making ideas of survey-analysis-plan or officer recommendation-council decision-implementation. Such notions assume that policy and decision-making proceed in a relatively technocratic and value neutral, unidirectional and step-wise process towards a finite end point.;In this book Jean Hillier explores ways in which different values and mind-sets may affect planning outcomes and relate to systemic

Jean Hillier is Professor of Urban and Regional Studies at Curtin University of Technology, Perth and Director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (WA).