Discourse Analysis and City Plans

The use of discourse theory as a tool for critical analysis has been ex-plored by several planning theorists. Two understandings of discourse can be identified in planning literature: the understanding derived from Ha-bermas’s critical theory which has been adapted for planners by John Forester, and the understanding based on Foucault’s work which has been employed by Christine Boyer. Brief summaries of these two tradi-tions are followed by a reading of planners ’ own major discourse — the city plan — in order to identify some of its enduring discursive traits. The significance of these traits is then discussed in terms of some of the key tenets of current postmodern theory. Alison Tett has recently completed her studie