Planning as persuasive storytelling in a geobal-scale web of relationships

Abstract

This acticle revisits Throgmorton's 1996 claim that planning can be thought of as a form of persuasive storytelling about the future. It responds to three broad lines of critique, connects the claim to contemporary scholarship about 'transnational urbanism' and the 'network societym,' and revises the author's initial claim. This revision suggests that planners should tell futute-oriented stories that help people imagine and create sustainble places. It further argues that, to be persuasive to a wide range of readers, planners' stories will have to make narrative and physical space for diverse locally-grounded common urban narratives. It recognizes that powerful actors will strive to eliminate or marginalize competing stories. Copyright © 2003S SAGE Publications.