A Decision-making Framework for the Ethical Planning Practitioner

Abstract

This article describes a three-part framework for making ethical decisions in planning practice. The framework includes both process and substantive components and is based on my own perspective of ethics as a practicing planner but also informed by descriptions of ethics from the planning and public administration literatures. The framework draws heavily on Howe (1994) and Bolan (1983). In terms of process, I describe five stages of a decision-making process and recommend it as a modest contribution to normative ethical theory. The framework also describes four sources of normative ethics; that part of the framework is descriptive, not normative. A third component of the framework identifies different values of the deontological and consequentialist approaches to ethics, neither of which can be considered complete or correct in its own right.