604B: Building creativity and imagination in planning practice

September 22, 2022

10:30AM - 11:00AM

Planners are often confronted with a range of complex problems. These include challenges related to planning for pandemics and dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis, designing for aging communities, managing the effects of economic restructuring, and addressing environmental problems. The list of challenges seems endless. Further, the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion is emphasized as a necessity in formulating planning outcomes.

Some feel there is a mismatch between the complex challenges that planners are facing and their capacity to respond in a creative, constructive manner. It has been argued that some planning work is proactive and visionary, while much of our practice is reactive and process oriented, especially at the local government level. The concept of the self-reflective practitioner is well-established yet under-used. Others have suggested that the profession has been in danger of losing the visionary and future-oriented spirit that has attracted many of us to planning careers. Still others have presented the rather disheartening analogy that planners are merely mechanics, adjusting and fine-tuning the machine that is the modern city.

A new model of planning — one that encourages and supports creativity in problem solving — is clearly needed to address these myriad complex and interconnected challenges. This session explores the related concepts of creativity, reflection, and imagination in planning theory and practice and considers whether, how, and to what extent planners understand these concepts and apply them in practice. It will identify some preconditions for creativity and how this could be enhanced and examine the extent to which creativity could lead to better decisions and outcomes. It is expected that learning outcomes from the session will include how the culture of planning practice can be influenced to best address future challenges.

Speakers