Advocacy Planning in the Age of Trump: An Opportunity to Influence National Urban Policy
In the years following World War II, the United States experienced a period of unmatched economic prosperity and political influence, which many scholars refer to as 'Pax Americana.'While the majority of Americans saw their employment status, household incomes, housing conditions, and overall quality of life significantly improve during this period, the majority of African American, Latino, and Native American communities did not (Lane, 2012) Growing disparities between rising economic expectations in the general population and limited educational, employment, and housing opportunities afforded to racial minorities reinforced by institutional racism based in white privilege laid the foundations for the American Civil Rights movement which grew in size and influence throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In 1965, Paul Davidoff, reflecting upon growing racial inequality in American society, wrote, 'Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning' which challenged several of the most important assumptions underlying the rational model of planning which dominated mid century professional practice in the United States and Europe (Davidoff, 1965) This article, which remains one of the most often cited in planning, argues against the existence of a unitary public interest in favor of multiple public interests based upon race, class, religion, ethnicity, and gender. The article also questions the objectivity of local planning agencies which Davidoff believed advanced policies and plans benefitting powerful economic elites at the expense of those living in poor and working class neighborhoods. Having identified these limitations of mid century planning, Davidoff proposed what William F. Whyte called a "social invention" to address the disturbing role planners were playing in promoting uneven patterns of metropolitan development at a time when African American youth were engaged in courageous acts of non violent civil disobedience to dismantle racial discrimination in education, employment, housing and transportation (Whyte, 1983) Davidoff urged social justice oriented planners to work with poor, racial minorities, immigrant communities, senior citizens and persons with disabilities to produce high quality plans featuring redistributive policies and participatory policymaking processes to serve as effective alternatives to those being proposed by centralized planning agencies privileging the needs of, what Logan and Molotch termed, urban growth machines (Logan Molotch, 1987) By working with groups frequently ignored by mainstream planning to generate oppositional plans, Davidoff believed advocacy planners could transform municipal planning commissions into deliberative bodies capable of critically assessing the underlying assumptions, theoretical frameworks, empirical evidence and planning recommendations of competing plans thereby producing more thoughtful and equitable planning decisions. Inspired by Davidoff's ideas and angered by
Planning Theory Practice