Urban planning and the truthiness question

Eric Sheppard

Chapter 26 in Handbook on Planning and Power, 2023, pp 397-411 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Truth is contingent, not objective. Lacking an absolute standard, truthfulness emerges from a social consensus accepting the validity of truth claims, structured by powerful forces constructing consent. The current ‘post-truth’ moment is not new but disruptive: marginalized right-wing truth claims are regaining attention. Its timing reflects the intersection of inequalising and disempowering Globalization with the digitization of society and platform capitalism algorithms. Distress about post-truth claims reflects legitimate concerns that they bend the arc of knowledge production away from social and environmental justice. Yet the succession of paradigms characterizing Anglophone urban planning also entails asserting counter-truth claims against pre-existing wisdom - albeit seeking to bend the arc towards justice. The alternative to arbitrarily legislating what counts as truth is to engage all conflicting claims with one another with no predetermined outcome: engaged pluralism. With knowledge contestable, planning is a political process with ends and means up for grabs.

Keywords: Geography; Politics and Public Policy Urban and Regional Studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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