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Relational Planning pp 99–120Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Can the Craft of Planning Be Ecologized? (And Why the Answer to That Question Doesn’t Include ‘Ecosystem Services’)

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Abstract

In this chapter I argue that any serious ambition toward ‘ecologizing’ the craft of planning would in addition to a reconfiguration of its underpinning sensibility also demand the development of a new methodological toolbox since currently existing frameworks are seriously limited by their foundations in modernist epistemologies and ontologies. I particularly focus on analyzing Ecosystem Services approaches, a set of methods that is today considered to be at the forefront of ecological planning, and carefully scrutinize how they in practice enact (or not) issues of wicked ecological complexity. I conclude that such approaches fail to provide handles for grappling with the type of complex trans-scalar ecological interdependencies that planning processes unavoidable must tackle if they are to function as vehicles for confronting planetary ecological challenges.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Divison of Urban & Regional Studies, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Jonathan Metzger

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  1. Jonathan Metzger
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Monika Kurath

  2. ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Marko Marskamp

  3. ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Julio Paulos

  4. University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jean Ruegg

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Metzger, J. (2018). Can the Craft of Planning Be Ecologized? (And Why the Answer to That Question Doesn’t Include ‘Ecosystem Services’). In: Kurath, M., Marskamp, M., Paulos, J., Ruegg, J. (eds) Relational Planning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60462-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60462-6_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60461-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60462-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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