Campbell (2006) suggests that planning is the art of situated ethical judgement, and makes five points about what needs to be done in decision-making in planning.
Davoudi (2015) states that planning as a practice of knowing is a dynamic process,
“it is a socially constructed understanding that emerges from practical collaboration”
(Davoudi, 2015, p. 323). As a result it is also therefore multi-dimensional, with four dimensions, it is situated and provisional, collective and distributed, purposive and pragmatic and mediated and contested (Davoudi, 2015).
The use of judgement introduces not just the use of knowledge but also values, by making judgements planners take moral positions, involving personal individual values (Vigar, 2012). The judgement often uses previous experience of similar situations applied to the evaluation of a variety of knowledge sources within the current context. However as all situations are effectively unique to some extent, it also requires practical judgement for each situation (Forester, 1991 cited in Vigar, 2012).
The combining of a range of knowledge sources also introduces the concept of power plays and the influence of parties on the planners judgement (Flyvbjerg,
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1998). The use of different knowledge’s by different actors in their different roles and how this relates to the testing and validating knowledge is also important (Alexander, 2008). Judgement can be altruistic in nature, seeking to give all stakeholders a voice (Hillier, 2000) but can also be more technically driven. In relation to the judgements around the setting of the CIL charge rate, the primarily technical nature of the
evidence and calculation may mean, a consultation with mainly professionals and technical experts, excluding others without the specialist technical knowledge, but it does not exclude the concept of power plays and of the need to consider moral positions and values.
The introduction of values and the taking of a moral position, of course reflects the move away from planners taking a technic-rational neutral position, as it has become increasingly impossible (Healey, 2006a). Two issues emerge from this, the tension between the values of individual planners as professionals and the collective values of the organisations within which they work and secondly, that the historic neutrality of planning decision making has actually supported power plays (Campbell 2006).
The freedom of planners to make decisions sometimes termed the “judgement space” (Vigar, 2012) or “discretionary space”, is considered to be diminishing (Gunn and Vigar, 2012). Inch (2010) identifies an acceptance of a disparity between values that planners aspire to and identify with and those they seem to be prepared to accept in everyday practice.
This reduced space for judgement and discretion it is argued has emerged as a result of Local Government reform and the reduction of the state as referred to earlier. Greater involvement by politicians in decision making and the view that the professional autonomy of planners has been undermined by changes to the system (Gunn and Vigar, 2012) are also important background to this study of CIL. It has led to a reappraisal of the role of planning and its relationship with the development industry (Campbell and Marshall, 1998; Inch, 2010). The move to a more market orientated planning system of which CIL can be seen as one element, has also seen resistance in planning practice (Campbell and Henneberry, 2005).
The nature of the use of knowledge in planning decision making being socially constructed and dynamic, the use of judgement and discretion by local authority
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planners under pinned by values but impacted by policy guidance are a key part of the background to the research and the impact on the role of planners.
3.10 Conclusion
The Literature Review has sought to consider the literature at several levels in how it has related to the research aims, firstly a consideration of the economic theories setting out how the economic rent (or development value) at the centre of value capture mechanisms can be assessed and divided up. The move from the assumptions of rational behaviour by actors in their decision making at the micro economic level, to having to consider the institutional context on the decision making process and the alternative approaches available to assist this. The various models of decision making within the development process are then considered, with again the development of the analysis from classical rational approaches to institutional and network approaches.
This shift in governance arrangements, is then considered within a wider context of policy making as the shift from hierarchies to networks is examined, leading on to the consideration of the market which has prevailed as the dominant governance
mechanism. This leads on to a consideration of the Planning tools that are available to influence decision making at various levels within the market, the impact on
various actors, who benefits and who loses from value capture mechanisms and how this impacts on the skills of planners as actors in the process.
The calculation of the share of the economic rent is then considered as the different actors shares are assessed as part of the process. An examination of the limited research into viability assessments and the appraisal process is considered, it being a key part of the policy making in value capture mechanisms.
The review of the literature finally considers the planner’s use of knowledge within the decision making process, the relationship between action and knowledge, the moral judgments and values that are involved in planning decisions and the limited amount of discretion planners have, with the impact this has on the role of planners.
The dynamic and socially constructed process of planning decision making are considered further in the next chapter on the research methodology.
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Chapter 4. Methodology (Argumentative Discourse Analysis of the micro politics of value capture)
4.1 Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to set out the theoretical framework and methodology for the research. The ontological and epistemological assumptions underpinning the research are set out, followed by consideration of the choice of methodology for the research. The research design is then discussed with the methods of data collection and analysis also set out. A final section on the researcher’s positionality and
reflexivity in relation to the research together with any ethical issues that need to be considered are discussed.