Kan Chen – författare

A great deal has been said and written about pollution, overpopulation, the depletion of natural resources, and the imminence of an ecological breakdown of catastrophic proportions. The urgent questions are: What can and must be done? How can we organize our knowledge, mobilize our energies, and focus our policy planning so as to create a new relationship between man and the world in which he lives? In Growth Policy a team of experts presents a truly original, interdisciplinary approach to growth policy research from an ecosystem perspective. The authors provide an overall systems framework in which research in population, environment, and social values can be integrated and then expanded to aid the policy-decision process. The authors challenge the conventional wisdom and assumptions that underlie current policy making, and they question the ability of present political and policy-making institutions to coordinate and control the interactions among the environment, population, resource consumption, and technological development. Nor do they subscribe to the facile notion that technology alone will solve the overall problem. Instead, they propose a macrosystems approach to policy research that identifies the issues, classifies and expands the range of possible policies, uses analytical models and computer technology to compare these possible policies in terms of the overall effect desired, and finally, requires the cooperation of policy makers and researchers as well as the public at the national and international levels. This approach has the virtue of developing rational and careful planning decisions without denying the elements of subjectivity and risk involved in such decision making. It also seeks to ensure that considerations of basic human values permeate all responses to the environmental crisis. The authors argue that new concepts of life on earth, of human society and culture, and even of man himself need to be formulated if human society is to enhance

Critiques of traditional urban planning are numerous. The debate about direction within the profession and why urban planning seems to be in a state of despair continues. However, and as Milan J. Dluhy and Kan Chen note, the more critical issue is the future direction of planning, particularly interdisciplinary planning. In this regard, they note five principal areas of concern: planning is action research, planning is knowledge driven, planning is both process and technologically oriented, planning is interdisciplinary, and planning is adaptive to emerging concerns.Reviewing the literature and empirical studies on roles and attitudes, the editors note that planners seem committed to symbols and expressions of advocacy as well as traditional planning doctrine. This emphasizes rational planning and neutral policy roles for practitioners. Without a guiding theory to give a unified approach to practice, planners remain free to select the role most compatible with their personal background and training. This volume asserts that diversity need not be a drawback as long as careful analysis and open planning processes are used.This title will be an invaluable resource. Part I illustrates the critical dilemmas in planning, Part II focuses on planning skills and orientations, the third part focuses sharply on planning roles, while the final section answers a fundamental question: can interdisciplinary planning offer a more useful perspective than others on how to achieve more successful planning outcomes?