The Inertial Forces of Ecological Planning: How Planning Resists Conceptual Change

Spatial planning – in both its ideas and practices – cannot directly adopt new concepts, but instead they must be embedded in the existing framework of professional concepts. This is challenging for planning discourses when determining the ways in which the urban green is conceptualized. This chapter argues that the basic dichotomy of recreational and preservation values has been able to resist the introduction of new concepts, such as green infrastructure and ecosystem services. This resistance can be understood through an ‘archaeological’ analysis of planning discourses, using Foucault’s analysis of the discourse formations of serious speakers. In addition to the usual dichotomies of urban growth versus green or the built environment versus nature, there is a deeper dualism between rationalized nature and the ‘bestiality’ of uncontrolled and uncommunicated nature, which is still needed for the legitimacy of planning. Current conceptual frameworks in the planning of the cities in Helsinki, Milan, and Montreal are analysed from this perspective.