| Abstract: | Abstract THE NEW WAVE OF PLANNING THEORY The legacy of the sixties has been a loss of faith in the certainties of the scientific method. We used to think that the problems of life in cities would yield to greater applications of the principle of scientific rationality. Now we are no longer sure of this. A few weeks ago, I attended a symposium in Tokyo on “New Problems of Advanced Societies.” Among those present were people, such as Erich Jantsch, who, I thought, would be among the staunchest defenders of a technocratic social order. Had they not invented the new wonders of policy science, technological forecasting, large-scale simulation studies, and sophisticated forms of evaluative research? To my astonishment, they expressed deep pessimism about the ability of the human mind to cope with the future and called instead for a regeneration of the human spirit at the wellsprings of poetry, philosophy, and transcendental meditation. |
