The document discusses the equity approach and radical approach in planning history and theory. It explains that the equity approach embraces Fraser's theory of social justice, seeking fair distribution of resources, recognition of minority rights, and political representation. Radical planning critiques planning as elitist and seeks decentralization, community participation, and structural changes to promote equality. It emphasizes local spontaneous activism, personal growth, and freedom from external manipulation, but lacks a clear roadmap for implementation.

1. PLANNING HISTORY AND THEORY
M. PLAN I SEM I
ASSIGNMENT : Equity Approach and Radical Approach
SUBMITTED TO: PROF. RAJENDRASINH PARDESHI
PROF. RUCHI GANDHI
SUBMITTED BY: BHAVESH PATEL

2. According to Fraser there are different approaches to social justice. One related to redistribution, which seeks a
more just distribution of resources and goods and another one, based on “politics of recognition”, which
intends to achieve social justice through the acknowledgement of the rights of minorities. In addition to these
two dimensions, Fraser adds a third one regarding representation in the political sphere. Representation serves
to account for “ordinary political injustices”, which arise internally, within bound political communities and
“meta-political injustices” which arise in the dimension of transnational political spaces, shifting the framework
of analysis from a national to a transnational perspective. However, in order to seek more equitable societies, it
is crucial to move beyond these approaches. Since these different optics of reality are overlapping, neither one
of them can achieve social justice without taking into account the other.
The equity approach embraces Fraser’s theory of social justice, understanding that redistribution, recognition
and representation are equally important. As mentioned in the 2015 Approaches to Equity Report, at its heart,
the equity approach addresses the needs of people who suffer from multiple, overlapping deprivations —
those who are the worst off — to enable their personal fulfilment. Equity is broadly defined in terms of fairness
and avoidance of unnecessary deprivations. The main objective behind implementing an equity approach is
the realization of human rights but this approach also has other outcomes, such as improving economic
growth, cost efficiency, sustainability and social cohesion that deserve to be mentioned.
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3. Equity planning tries to provide more choices for those who have few and to redistribute resources. political
power, and participation toward the lower-income, disadvantaged residents of their cities. Early equity plans
were adopted in several cities by official planning agencies. Since that time equity planning has expanded
beyond city planning departments and commissions. Social equity is now the primary focus of non profit
community planning. regional planning, and other groups that use city planning techniques and often employ
planners. They include community development corporations; public interest research groups (PIRGs); and
groups working on the environment, access to healthy food, workforce development, and other issues. It
seems clear that the most effective contemporary planning for social equity is now taking place within the
community planning field, and the issues of sustainability, income inequality, and the diversification of our
society suggest the probable expansion of equity planning in the future.
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4. Radical planning is a stream of urban planning which seeks to manage development in
an equitable and community-based manner. The seminal text to the radical planning movement
is Foundations for a Radical Concept in Planning (1973), by Stephen Grabow and Allen Heskin. Grabow and
Heskin provided a critique of planning as elitist, centralizing and change-resistant, and proposed a new
paradigm based upon systems change, decentralization, communal society, facilitation of human
development and consideration of ecology. Grabow and Heskin were joined by Head of Department of Town
Planning from the Polytechnic of the South Bank Shean McConnell, and his 1981 work Theories for Planning.
In 1987 John Friedmann entered the fray with Planning in the Public Domain: From Knowledge to Action,
promoting a radical planning model based on “decolonization”, “democratization”, “self-empowerment” and
“reaching out”. Friedmann described this model as an “Agropolitan development” paradigm, emphasizing
the re-localization of primary production and manufacture. In “Toward a Non-Euclidian Mode of Planning"
(1993) Friedmann further promoted the urgency of decentralizing planning, advocating a planning paradigm
that is normative, innovative, political, trans active and based on a social learning approach to knowledge
and policy.
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5. Radical planning usually occurs in a totalitarian society, where citizens do not have sufficient means to voice
their concerns. Radical planning disciples believe that radical movement should be conducted as a critic to
transform the society (Friedmann 1987, Beard 2003). The goal of radical planning is the emancipation of
humanity from social oppression by the state and inequality generated by the market. Radical planning
theory expects minimum intervention from the state or other forces, while inviting maximum participation
from the community. This theory rose as critics of the social structure that reflecting elitist, centralizing, and
change-resistant tendencies (Alinsky, 1969; Grabow and Heskin, 1973).
According to Hudson (1979), there are two mainstreams in radical planning thinking. The first mainstream is
related to spontaneous activism, guided by an idealistic but pragmatic vision of self reliance and mutual aid.
Radical planning focuses on the importance of personal growth, cooperative spirit, and freedom from
manipulation by external forces. This first mainstream expects that change can immediately happen in the
near future. Changes in radical planning theory usually occur in local level, because it is the focus of radical
planners; short term, local level. These characteristics lead to the need of vision as one of the criteria to
evaluate radical planning in this paper. It is believed that radical planners need to have long-term vision to
direct the social transformation.
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6. The second mainstream of radical planning theory takes a more critical and comprehensive view at large
scale social processes; such as the effect of class structure and economic relationship, the control exercised
by culture and media, the historical dynamics of social movements, confrontations, alliances, and struggles
(Hudson, 1979). This stream seems to correct the first mainstream that has focus on local level. In the
second mainstream, the focus is on the bigger lens; the state. This view expects to challenge the structure of
social and economic life at all levels. The similarity of the two mainstreams is on the goal, which is social
transformation, instead of social guidance.
Radical planners have central role to mobilize collective action of the society. They can play their role as
mediators, negotiators, and activists. These roles of radical planners require necessary skills such as
communication, negotiation, knowledge, and leadership. Communication skill is appropriate to solve
conflict through mediated negotiation. In mediated communication, planners attempt to forge a working
agreement among two or more groups that approach an issue with differing viewpoints or goals (Brooks,
2002). What makes interesting is that the mediated negotiation used by planners to solve the conflicts does
not depend solely on their formal responsibilities, but also on their informal initiatives, such as conducting
informal meeting. We must also need to understand that different actors have different strategies, and
therefore there is no single solution and strategy for a problem. It is important to note that communication
skill does not exclusively belong to radical planning theory, but this also applies to other planning theories.
Brooks (2002) underlines the importance of communication for all planners to be able to communicate with
all levels in the society.
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7. Meaning and Characteristics:
Radicals call for a more progressive approach to planning, following not – satisfactory – enough outcomes of
Advocacy planning experiments.
Call for decentralization, ecological attentiveness and spontaneous activism guided by a vision of self-reliance
and mutual aid.
Radical planning emphasizes the importance of personal growth, cooperative spirit, and freedom from
manipulation by anonymous forces.
It calls for structural changes to promote equality, participation and legitimacy in planning.
Critique:
Radical planning is an ambiguous tradition, no clear road map for doing planning.
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8. References:
• Alinsky, S. (1969). Reveille for Radicals. Random House: New York.
• Beard, V.A. (2003). Learning Radical Planning: The Power of Collective Action. Planning Theory, Vol. 2(13): 13-
35.
• Brooks, M. (2002). Planning Theory for Practitioners. Planners Press: Chicago, IL.
• Friedmann, J. (1987). Planning in the Public Domain: From Knowledge to Action. Princeton University Press:
Priceton, NJ.
• Grabow, H., and Heskin, A. (1973). Foundations for a Radical Concept of Planning. Journal of the American
Institute for Planners, pp. 106-114.
• Hudson, B.M. (1979). Comparison of Current Planning Theories. Journal of American Planning Association,
pp. 387-398
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_urban_planning#:~:text=Radical%20planning%20is%20a%20strea
m,Stephen%20Grabow%20and%20Allen%20Heskin
• https://yudoanggoro.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/radical-planning/
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