Stories of Pasts and Futures in Planning

Societies are constantly changing, facing new challenges and possibilities generated by innovative technologies, sociospatial re-structuring and mobilities. This research approaches these challenges by exploring the role that stories about pasts, presents and futures play in planning. It sees stories as interlinked spaces of struggle over meanings, legitimacies and powers through which “our” valuable pasts and “our” desirable futures become re-constructed, framed and projected. It argues that powerful stories might consciously or unconsciously become institutionalised in policy discourses and documents, foregrounding our spatial realities and affecting our living spaces. These arguments and assumptions are investigated in relation to three cases: Regional-Pasts, SeGI-Futures and ICT-Futures. The stories about pasts, presents and futures surrounding these cases are investigated with the aim of initiating critical discussions on how stories about pasts and futures can inform, but also be sustained by, planning processes. While studies of these cases are presented in separate papers, these studies are brought together in an introductory essay and reconstructed in response to the research questions: How do regional futures become informed by the pasts? How do particular stories about the pasts become selected, framed and projected as envisioned futures? What messages are conveyed to the pasts and the presents through envisioned futures? How can stories of the past be referred and re-employed in planning to build more inclusive futures? To engage with the multidisciplinarity of these questions, they are investigated through dialogues between three main fields: heritage studies, futures studies and planning. The discussions have challenged the conventional divides between pasts, presents and futures, emphasised their plural nature and uncovered how the discursive power of stories play a significant role when interpreting pasts and envision futures in planning practices.QC 20160523