An insight into planning practice, by Yves Ullmo Planning practitioners are asking themselves questions about their own practice. They agree with the pertinency of the form of analysis which deals with planning, as an institution and a function, at two levels: in the social system on the one hand, and in the administrative and governmental sub-system on the other. They feel, however, that this outline neglects the specific nature of planning: its own, almost autonomous rationality. Is not this third level no more than a form of self-justification though, incapable moreover of representing the real effect of planning as an interface between the social system and the administrative and governmental sub-system? It may be that this emphasis on ...