Participatory land use planning (8329478333)

Participatory planning is an

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. Etymology ''Paradigm'' comes f ...

that emphasizes involving the entire community in the community planning process. Participatory planning emerged in response to the centralized and

rationalistic In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosoph ...

approaches that defined early urban planning work. It has become a highly influential paradigm both in the context of traditional urban planning, and in the context of international

community development The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." It is a broad concept, applied to the practices of civic leaders, activists ...

. There is no singular theoretical framework or set of practical methods that make up participatory planning. Rather, it is a broad paradigm which incorporates a wide range of diverse theories and approaches to community planning. In general, participatory planning programs prioritize the integration of technical expertise with the preferences and knowledge of community members in the planning process. They also generally emphasize consensus building and collective community decision making, and prioritize the participation of traditionally

marginalized Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...

groups in the planning process. cTague, C. & Jakubowski, S. Marching to the beat of a silent drum: Wasted consensus-building and failed neighborhood participatory planning. Applied Geography 44, 182–191 (2013)/ref>

Origins

Rational planning tradition

Prior to the 1970s, community planning was generally directed in a top-down way by trained professionals. Modern community planning developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with as city governments and urban planners began to create centralized, comprehensive community plans such the garden cities of

Ebenezer Howard Sir Ebenezer Howard (29 January 1850 – 1 May 1928) was an English urban planner and founder of the garden city movement, known for his publication ''To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform'' (1898), the description of a utopian city in whic ...

. In this era, the rational planning model was far and away the dominant paradigm in urban planning. Under this model, professional planners would identify an established set of goals for a project, rationally weigh a set of alternatives to achieve those goals, and then create and implement a plan accordingly. There was very little room for public participation within these rationalistic planning models. While discussing the common threads in the vision and work of early urban planners, Influential urbanist Peter Hall says that, "Their vision seems to have been that of the planner as the omniscient ruler, who should create new settlement forms … without interference or question. The complexities of planning in a ...a participatory democracy where individuals and groups have their own, often contradictory, notions of what should happen—all of these are absent from the work of these pioneers." Rationalist approaches to planning were often applied during the

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

programs of the mid 20th century. Under these programs, large areas in major cities, often occupied by poorer people and people of color, were demolished, and a new plan for the area was designed and carried out. These urban renewal programs have prompted widespread criticism accusing them of destroying viable communities with long histories, and displacing disproportionately black and poor people to other underserved parts of the city.

Emergence of participatory planning

In the 1960s and 70s, there was a growing wave of critical responses to these traditional rationalist approaches. Scholars criticized traditional planning methods as undemocratic and unresponsive to community needs. In her highly influential 1961 book ''

The Death and Life of Great American Cities ''The Death and Life of Great American Cities'' is a 1961 book by writer and activist Jane Jacobs. The book is a critique of 1950s urban planning policy, which it holds responsible for the decline of many city neighborhoods in the United Sta ...

'', Jane Jacobs argued that centralized planning methods are disconnected from real knowledge of life in a city. In 1969,

Sherry Arnstein Sherry Phyllis Arnstein, (née Rubin) (11 January 1930 – 19 January 1997) was the author of the highly influential journal article "A Ladder of Citizen Participation". Working as a special assistant to the assistant secretary at the U.S. Depar ...

wrote a landmark essay titled ''A Ladder of Citizen Participation'', to create a typology of different forms of citizen involvement in municipal programs, and criticize less participatory approaches to urban planning. In the 1970s a series of prominent planning theorists suggested alternative models of urban planning which were more participatory in nature. Prominent among them were

John Friedmann John Friedmann (April 16, 1926 – June 11, 2017) was an Honorary Professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Aff ...

's model of transactive planning,

Paul Davidoff Paul Davidoff (February 14, 1930 – December 27, 1984) was an American planner, planning educator, and planning theoretician who conceptualized " advocacy planning" with his wife, Linda Stone Davidoff. In legal scholarship, he is known as the pr ...

and Linda Davidoff's model of advocacy planning, and Stephen Grabow and Allen Heskin's theory of radical planning. These models constituted a broad theoretical turn towards a more participatory planning paradigm which has been highly influential on modern urban planning. At around the same time, participation became increasingly central to planning policy and practice. In 1961, landscape architect Karl Linn started the first community design center in Philadelphia. Community design centers are organizations which work to provide planning expertise to marginalized communities. These grassroots participatory planning models became widespread, often organizing to fight major urban renewal projects. In the mid 1960s, the federal government responded to widespread criticisms of urban renewal by establishing the

Model Cities Program The Model Cities Program was an element of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty. The concept was presented by labor leader Walter Reuther to President Johnson in an off-the-record White House meeting on May 20, 1965. ...

and the

Community Action Program In the United States and its territories, Community Action Agencies (CAA) are local private and public non-profit organizations that carry out the Community Action Program (CAP), which was founded by the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act to fight po ...

. These two programs were part of Lyndon B. Johnson's

Great Society The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The term was first coined during a 1964 commencement address by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Universit ...

, and included a much greated focus on community participation. The legislation establishing both programs included language requiring the "maximum feasible participation of the members of groups and areas to be served". These programs were highly influential, and marked an important turn towards a more participatory vision of urban planning.

Tools/methods

Participatory planning programs employ a wide range of methods and tools in order to facilitate public participation in the urban planning process. Since the 1960s, planning programs have relied on a wide range of tools such as

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a Representative democr ...

focus group A focus group is a group interview involving a small number of demographically similar people or participants who have other common traits/experiences. Their reactions to specific researcher/evaluator-posed questions are studied. Focus groups are ...

s, consensus conferences, citizen advisory committees,

public hearings In law, a hearing is a proceeding before a court or other decision-making body or officer, such as a government agency or a legislative committee. Description A hearing is generally distinguished from a trial in that it is usually shorter and ...

, and public opinion surveys in order to facilitate public participation. In addition, some planning practitioners employ more comprehensive approaches to participatory planning, such as Participatory Rural Appraisal. In recent years, social media and other digital tools in particular have transformed participatory urban planning. Many different organizations have integrated these participatory planning methods into their work, either conducting broad community planning projects, or conducting planning initiatives for specific purposes such as forest management, enzel, S. et al. Decision support systems in forest management: requirements from a participatory planning perspective. Eur J Forest Res 131, 1367–1379 (2012)./ref> natural disaster risk reduction, and ancient rock art management.

Participatory rural appraisal

Participatory Rural Appraisal is a leading method of participatory planning, employed most often in the context of international community development. Participatory Rural Appraisal draws heavily on the work of

Paulo Freire Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work '' Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' is generally considered one of the found ...

and his idea of

critical consciousness Critical consciousness, conscientization, or in Portuguese, is a popular education and social concept developed by Brazilian pedagogue and educational theorist Paulo Freire, grounded in post-Marxist critical theory. Critical consciousness focu ...

, as well as Kurt Lewin's integration of democratic leadership,

group dynamics Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (''intra''group dynamics), or between social groups ( ''inter''group dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision- ...

experiential learning Experiential learning (ExL) is the process of learning through experience, and is more narrowly defined as "learning through reflection on doing". Hands-on learning can be a form of experiential learning, but does not necessarily involve students ...

action research Action research is a philosophy and methodology of research generally applied in the social sciences. It seeks transformative change through the simultaneous process of taking action and doing research, which are linked together by critical refl ...

, and open systems theory. PRA has been modified and reframed in the related models of Participatory Learning and Action (PLA), and

Community-Based Participatory Research Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a partnership approach to research that equitably involves community members, organizational representatives, researchers, and others in all aspects of the research process, with all partners in the p ...

(CBPR). Robert Chambers, an important early practitioner of Participatory Rural Appraisal outlines a "menu" of specific methods and techniques that are central to the broad technique of Participatory Rural Appraisal, including but not limited to: * Semi-structured interviews * Participatory mapping and modeling * Time lines and trend and change analysis *

Transect A transect is a path along which one counts and records occurrences of the objects of study (e.g. plants). There are several types of transect. Some are more effective than others. It requires an observer to move along a fixed path and to count ...

walks * Daily time-use analysis * Institutional diagramming * Matrix scoring and ranking * Shared presentations and analysis * Oral histories and ethno-biographies

Participatory e-planning

Participatory Planning organizations use a range of digital tools to enhance and organize public participation in the planning process.

E-participation Electronic participation (e-participation) is ICT-supported participation in processes involving government and citizens. Processes may concern administration, service delivery, decision making and policy making. E-participation is hence closely ...

has come into increasingly widespread use in public service programs as information and communications technologies have become more widely available. aad-Sulonen, J. The Role of the Creation and Sharing of Digital Media Content in Participatory E-Planning: International Journal of E-Planning Research 1, 1–22 (2012)./ref> E-planning draws on the tools and techniques of e-participation in the context of urban planning. It has been defined as, "a socio-cultural, ethical and political practice which takes place offline and online in the overlapping phases of the planning and decision-making cycle, by using digital and non-digital tools". Participatory e-planning research has generally focused on incorporating forms of participation with existing governance and urban planning processes. Some participatory e-planning programs involve the use of relatively simple digital tools like online questionnaires, surveys, and polls to consultant citizens. Other programs have used information and communications technologies that were designed for everyday use—such as mainstream social media—in order to seek out more widespread and open-ended public input. Often, the public engages with planners through social media outlets even if their input is not directly solicited, indicating that e-planning has the potential to foster organic bottom-up participatory planning. Other participatory planning processes have used existing digital technologies like

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...

, and interactive games in order to foster participation. In addition, certain digital tools have been designed specifically to foster public participation in urban planning.

Participatory geographic information systems

Participatory Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are an increasingly widespread tool for participatory e-planning. Traditional GIS are computerized tools which organize a wide variety of geographically referenced information. This information is generally organized and displayed on a computerized map. Since the 1990s there have been increasingly widespread attempts to develop Participatory GIS systems. These systems are very diverse, applied in a wide range of contexts, and have incorporated many different ways of soliciting public participation, such as

Participatory 3D Modelling Participatory 3D modelling (P3DM) is a community-based cartography, mapping method which integrates local spatial knowledge with data on elevation of the land and depth of the sea to produce stand-alone, scaled and geo-referenced relief models. E ...

. Often, participatory planning practitioners will create a detailed interactive map of a community using a GIS program, and then facilitate public input using the interactive map as a tool to foster more constructive deliberation between planners and community members. Several planning programs have combined Participatory GIS Software with large interactive touchscreens, so a large group of stakeholders can stand around an interactive map and manipulate it in order to offer their input. GIS technology has also been integrated with other kinds of Information and Communications Technology such as

Decision Support Systems A decision support system (DSS) is an information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations and planning levels of an organization (usually mid and higher management) and ...

, to create diverse interfaces for facilitating public participation.

Theoretical framework

Participatory planning is a broad paradigm rather than a single well-defined theory. A wide range of scholars, theorists, and urban planners have advocated for different theoretical models that emphasize citizen participation in the planning process. Collectively, these theories make up the participatory planning paradigm. A few of the most influential theoretical frameworks are described here.

Non-hierarchical planning

In 1965,

Christopher Alexander Christopher Wolfgang John Alexander (4 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an Austrian-born British-American architect and design theorist. He was an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His theories about the nature ...

published a highly influential essay titled '' A City is Not a Tree'', later expanded upon in a book of the same name. In the essay he argued against mainstream planning practices which represented cities with overly simplified hierarchical models. In those models, small systems or areas in cities were conceived of as subdivisions of larger systems and areas, which were in turn conceived of as subdivisions of larger systems and areas, in a model that resembled a tree. Alexander argued that these models are easy to understand, but don't reflect the reality of cities, in which different systems and communities interact in many complex and overlapping ways. Alexander proposed that urban planners should think of the city instead in a non-hierarchical "semi-lattice" structure. Alexander stresses that these new models require planners to incorporate much more complicated understandings of the city, and it is difficult for planners to fully understand all of the complicated interactions and structures that are incorporated in this semi-lattice view. Other scholars drew on this critique to argue for more participatory, non-hierarchical approaches to planning. Scholars argued that non-hierarchical models of the city were too complex to be understood or designed through a centralized process, and so must rely on the input and perspectives of a wide range of people. mith, R. W. A theoretical basis for participatory planning. Policy Sci 4, 275–295 (1973)/ref> This non-hierarchical understanding of how cities function laid the groundwork for the participatory planning paradigm.

Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation

Responding to the persistent gap between the desires of local communities, and traditional rationalistic approaches to planning, Sherry Arnstein wrote her essay ''A Ladder of Citizen Participation'' in 1969 to "encourage a more enlightened dialogue". The ladder is a typology of different levels of citizen participation in government programs. She describes eight different forms of participation, arranged in three categories: non-participation, degrees of tokenism, and degrees of citizen power. She advocates that government projects and planning processes should involve the forms of citizen participation that she places higher on the ladder. Her critical assault has become highly influential on current theory and practice of citizen participation in urban planning and government programs, and is a very important piece of the participatory planning paradigm. Participatory planning programs incorporate many diverse levels and forms of participation, but they generally draw on Arnstein's central critique of programs that have no role for citizen input, or only incorporate tokenistic participation.

Participatory planning models

Within the participatory planning paradigm there are several explicitly defined theoretical models of what participatory planning should look like. The kind of participation that these models call for varies, but they all emphasize participation as a central piece of a well designed approach to planning. The following are several of the most influential participatory planning models.

Advocacy planning

and Linda Davidoff, in their influential essay ''Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning'', proposed a participatory approach to planning called Advocacy Planning, In which trained planners would work directly with different groups of people in the city, including underrepresented communities and interest groups, to design plans which corresponded to those groups' specific needs. Planners would then argue on behalf of these plans in front of a central planning commission.

Transactive planning

proposed a transactive model of planning in his 1973 book ''Retracking America: A Theory of Transactive Planning.'' Transactive planning suggested that urban planners should engage in direct face-to-face conversation with members of the community who have immediate, experiential knowledge of their neighborhood. Under transactive planning, this dialog is paired with collaborative action, in which planners and community members each engage in the design process. This model emphasizes learning and development of the people and institutions involved, rather than more specific programmatic goals.

Radical planning

Stephen Grabow and Allan Heskin advocated for a model they call radical planning in their 1973 essay ''Foundations for a Radical Concept of Planning.'' Radical planning calls for sweeping structural changes in the planning field. Heskin and Grabow argued that planning decisions should be broadly decentralized and connected more closely to small communities that they affected most directly, and that planners should not be thought of as separate from the communities they serve. Heskin and Grabow wrote that under radical planning "the 'planner' is one of us, or all of us."

Communicative planning

A group of planning theorists in the 1980s and 90s including

Patsy Healey Patsy Healey (née Ingold; born 1 January 1940) is a British urban planner. She is professor emeritus at Global Urban Research Unit in the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape, at Newcastle University. She is a specialist in planning ...

and Judith Innes developed a participatory model of planning which they refer to as communicative planning. Communicative planning draws heavily on Habermas's idea of

communicative rationality Communicative rationality or communicative reason (german: kommunikative Rationalität) is a theory or set of theories which describes human rationality as a necessary outcome of successful communication. This theory, borne from the over inflation ...

, and proposes an approach to planning in which diverse stakeholders in the planning process participate in deliberative conversations, work to resolve conflicts in their values and priorities, and collectively create a consensus plan. In this process, planners serve to facilitate this deliberation and offer technical expertise when called for.

Examples

World Bank

The community-driven development approach advocated by

the World Bank The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Gr ...

is an example of participatory planning. A number of examples link participatory community plans with

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loc ...

planning. One widely applied example is

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

's national policy of community-based planning methodology, and an adapted version, the ''Harmonised Participatory Planning Guide for Lower Level Local Governments'', which is national policy in Uganda. Community-Based Planning has been applied across the whole of

eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality created in 2000, that includes the city of Durban, South Africa and surrounding towns. eThekwini is one of the 11 districts of KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The majo ...

in South Africa, including the City of Durban, and is being rolled out in

Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality The City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of the East Rand region of Gauteng. The municipality itself is a large suburban region east of Johannesburg. The name ''Ekurhuleni' ...

.For further information on community-based economic development in Uganda, South Africa, Ghana and Zimbabwe, visit th
African Institute for Community-Driven Development's website
Community-Based Planning is an example of the practical application of the

sustainable living Sustainable living describes a lifestyle that attempts to reduce the use of Earth's natural resources by an individual or society. It is referred to as zero wastage living" or "net zero living". Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their e ...

Britain in the 1940s

After the bombing of British cities during World War II, planning advocates wanted to use the reconstruction planning as a way to engage the public. .html" ;"title="owan, S. E. "Democracy, Technocracy and Publicity: Public Consultation and British Planning, 1939-1951. (2010). at ">owan, S. E. "Democracy, Technocracy and Publicity: Public Consultation and British Planning, 1939-1951. (2010). at /ref> The planners wanted more authority in the political system to play a more substantive role within their democracy. The planners created new techniques to, "communicate with laypeople, including mobilizing publicity, measuring public opinion, organizing exhibitions, and experimenting with new visual strategies" They also developed a forum to educate and ask the public about various plans and policies.

Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood

Cincinnati's Over-The-Rhine's Comprehensive Plan was created in a participatory planning process, but its consistent monitoring of its implementation failed. Looking at Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, geographers saw potential logistical ways to obtain "necessary data, create a land-use GIS to analyze the data, update the data, and monitor the progress of the implementation of the Over-the Rhine Comprehensive Plan". In the case of Cincinnati, it is proven that plans that are not carried out fail to live up to the participatory planning theory. Failures like that of the Over-the-Rhine plan make it harder for further progress toward plan's goal and objectives as well as muting the participants.

Managing forests

Forest management Forest management is a branch of forestry concerned with overall administrative, legal, economic, and social aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects, such as silviculture, protection, and forest regulation. This includes management fo ...

involves a variety of stakeholders, including the owners of the forest, locals, tourism enterprises, recreational uses, private or official conservationists, or the forest industry. Each of these parties has a different goal in using forests, which complicates planning. angas, A., Kangas, Jyrki, Kurttila, Mikko. Decision Support for Forest Management. (Springer Science + Business Media B.V, 2008)/ref> Participatory approaches and computerized tools like decision support systems (DSS) have been used to help balance these diverse priorities. The features of DSS that can help participatory processes in the context of forest management. are the following: "group decision support, possibilities to include other values than timber production, flexibility of system to include non-traditional forest data and management options, and multi-criteria decision analysis tools."

What are the Solutions for this challenge

Ensuring that all sections of the community are able to participate is a challenge for participatory planning. Some approaches, such as Community-Based Planning, separate the community so that the livelihoods and preferred outcomes of different

social groups In the social sciences, a social group can be defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties ...

can be identified. Many experiences with ''participatory reflection and action'' and participatory planning suffer from a lack of follow-up. PRA has often not been part of a system, but an ''

ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...

'' process. Community-Based Planning has tried to overcome this by linking planning to the mainstream local government planning system. Another challenge is caused by a lack of funds to actually implement the plans, which can lead to participation fatigue and frustration among communities. In the social-investment funds supported by the World Bank, participatory planning is often the first step, often leading to planning of infrastructure. In some cases, such as Community-Based Planning in South Africa, amounts of around US$3,500 to $6,800 are provided to each ward to implement activities arising from the ward plan. This then stimulates more widespread community action.

Organizations working in participatory planning

Center for Urban Pedagogy

The

Center for Urban Pedagogy The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of design and art to improve the quality of public participation in urban planning and community design. History CUP was founded in 1997 by the artist and arc ...

(CUP) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

"is a nonprofit organization that uses design and art to improve

civic engagement Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to ...

". UP: About. at http://welcometocup.org/About/ref> CUP projects aim to involve more individuals to work on policy and urban planning issues. CUP increases the public understanding of urban planning systems so that more of the community becomes involved. "CUP projects are collaborations of art and design professionals, community-based advocates and policymakers, and our staff" Together, these community members work on issues ranging from the

juvenile justice system A juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes that are committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern legal s ...

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

law to food access. CUP takes these issues and simplifies them to accessible, visual interpretations. The tools created by CUP are used by New York City organizers and educators to push for better communities.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Goldman, Ian and Abbott, Joanne, eds. (April 2004)
Decentralisation and community-based planning.
''Participatory Learning and Action Notes'' 49. International Institute for Environment and Development:London.

External links

* The World Bank Participation Sourcebook

*

Communities and Local Government The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local government i ...

UK
Participatory Planning for Sustainable Communities: International experience in mediation, negotiation and engagement in making plans
{{DEFAULTSORT:Participatory Planning Urban planning

Planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. The evolution of forethought, the capacity to think ahead, is c ...