Planners’ ideals and realities : Normative behaviour and conformorality

People often make presumptions about planners – rational, altruistic, self-interested, bureaucratic, and so on. However, what is a realist portrait of planning practitioners? What normative dispositions do they tend to adopt, why do they adopt them, and how they behave based on them? To shed light...

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Main Author: Qingyuan Guo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AESOP Association of the European Schools of Planning 2024-11-01
Series:Transactions of the Association of European Schools of Planning
Subjects:
Online Access:https://transactions-journal.aesop-planning.eu/index.php/TrAESOP/article/view/105
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author Qingyuan Guo
author_facet Qingyuan Guo
author_sort Qingyuan Guo
collection DOAJ
description People often make presumptions about planners – rational, altruistic, self-interested, bureaucratic, and so on. However, what is a realist portrait of planning practitioners? What normative dispositions do they tend to adopt, why do they adopt them, and how they behave based on them? To shed light on these questions, this study explores the normative behaviour of planning practitioners. A meta-ethnography was conducted focusing on 19 empirical studies relevant to the normative behaviour of English local authority planners from 1978 to 2022. The paper’s synthesis of the same revealed prominent normative frameworks within the planning community across different social-temporal contexts. The findings highlight consistent normative features among planners: a deep internalisation of a moderately progressive professional ideal and a strong identification with the planning profession. These results indicate a widespread phenomenon of conformorality within the planning profession, with planners frequently facing challenges when it comes to adhering to two sets of norms: the bureaucratic, and the professional. The study also discusses different mechanisms that contribute to the achievement and maintenance of planners’ conformorality, including compliance, identification, and internalisation.
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spelling doaj-art-6beaf4b0f374465ca7e146132d746f1f2024-11-14T16:13:52ZengAESOP Association of the European Schools of PlanningTransactions of the Association of European Schools of Planning2566-21472024-11-018110.24306/TrAESOP.2024.01.004Planners’ ideals and realities : Normative behaviour and conformoralityQingyuan Guo0Department of Geography and Environment People often make presumptions about planners – rational, altruistic, self-interested, bureaucratic, and so on. However, what is a realist portrait of planning practitioners? What normative dispositions do they tend to adopt, why do they adopt them, and how they behave based on them? To shed light on these questions, this study explores the normative behaviour of planning practitioners. A meta-ethnography was conducted focusing on 19 empirical studies relevant to the normative behaviour of English local authority planners from 1978 to 2022. The paper’s synthesis of the same revealed prominent normative frameworks within the planning community across different social-temporal contexts. The findings highlight consistent normative features among planners: a deep internalisation of a moderately progressive professional ideal and a strong identification with the planning profession. These results indicate a widespread phenomenon of conformorality within the planning profession, with planners frequently facing challenges when it comes to adhering to two sets of norms: the bureaucratic, and the professional. The study also discusses different mechanisms that contribute to the achievement and maintenance of planners’ conformorality, including compliance, identification, and internalisation. https://transactions-journal.aesop-planning.eu/index.php/TrAESOP/article/view/105conformalityplanning practiceprofessional valuescareersmeta-ethnography
spellingShingle Qingyuan Guo
Planners’ ideals and realities : Normative behaviour and conformorality
Transactions of the Association of European Schools of Planning
conformality
planning practice
professional values
careers
meta-ethnography
title Planners’ ideals and realities : Normative behaviour and conformorality
title_full Planners’ ideals and realities : Normative behaviour and conformorality
title_fullStr Planners’ ideals and realities : Normative behaviour and conformorality
title_full_unstemmed Planners’ ideals and realities : Normative behaviour and conformorality
title_short Planners’ ideals and realities : Normative behaviour and conformorality
title_sort planners ideals and realities normative behaviour and conformorality
topic conformality
planning practice
professional values
careers
meta-ethnography
url https://transactions-journal.aesop-planning.eu/index.php/TrAESOP/article/view/105
work_keys_str_mv AT qingyuanguo plannersidealsandrealitiesnormativebehaviourandconformorality