Infrastructure Provision, the Negotiating Process and the Planner's Role

While acknowledging the importance of considering infrastructure as a critical feature in the development process, this paper suggests that a deeper study of the issues involved can offer new insights into the role of planners and the functioning of planning systems. An awareness of the problems of implementation and the importance of understanding the significance of negotiative practice in the process is critical here. The essential argument is that, because traditional planning was founded on concepts of modernity, it was assumed that implementation was not a concern. The author suggests that negotiations have long been a feature of planning systems which need further and wider consideration. An ideal model for negotiating practice—positional bargaining—is examined to provide a means for assessing the papers included in this collection. In acknowledging that the negotiating strategies examined in the case study papers are a product of the socio-political context, the paper proposes that a mechanism for cross-cultural comparison needs to be devised and applied in order that the capacity to generalise across a diversity of circumstances is made possible.