Truth, Lies or Allies? The Agency of Estimates

Eric Keys

Planning Theory & Practice, 2023, vol. 24, issue 1, 30-45

Abstract: Estimates – whether a project budget or a patronage forecast – are problematic planning artefacts. Current scholarship seems divided between those that hold estimates as objective statements and those who see them as rationalities of the powerful. Both constructs, if allowed, constrain the planners’ agency in daily practice. These worldviews can be reconciled if estimates are acknowledged as social constructs. I explore this alternative view by re-examining Wachs’ classic case of When planners lie with numbers and an example from my own experience. The analysis uses ANT to make explicit the tacit knowledge gained through working with estimates in practice.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14649357.2022.2155692 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rptpxx:v:24:y:2023:i:1:p:30-45

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rptp20

DOI: 10.1080/14649357.2022.2155692

Access Statistics for this article

Planning Theory & Practice is currently edited by Heather Campbell

More articles in Planning Theory & Practice from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().