Sense and Limits of Spatial Visioning

Abstract

Whatever the model of social and urban regulation operating in a particular context, it cannot be denied that visioning activities carry out strategic functions. No complex reality can be developed through the simple aggregation of vested interests and programmes without running the risk of dissipating opportunities and diminishing planning effectiveness and environmental quality. Yet the non-prescriptive nature of current views (in contrast with modernist models) poses critical problems from a political, as well as a technical, standpoint.