Question

To what extent do you think planners have responsibility for social outcomes or social justice?

Answer 1

Planners face three conflicting priorities that is economy, environment, and equity. Generally a planner focusses on one aspect would ignore the others or see them as competition. For instance, an environmental planner would see economic development as damaging to the environment and would likely focus on environmental preservation at the expense of social equity and economic development. Sustainable development focusses on a single aspect of development instead emphasising the balancing of three competing aspects. This sustainable paradigm is thus inherently interested in furthering social justice. The argument that sustainability cannot exist without equity and social considerations means that for a city or community to be sustainable it must emphasise social justice.

Planners are completely responsible for social justice because planning cannot be seperated from society, planning is determined by the economic structure of the society and works to further the dominant economic paradigm which in the vast majority of cases. There is a view that economic structure is linked with social structure, the adoption such economic structure would result in more just social structure and in the process a more just planning framework.