Habermas revisited : Resurrecting the contested roots of communicative planning theory

Communicative planning made its breakthrough in the late 1980s and 1990s, and has remained one of most discussed topics in the field of planning theory ever since. Seen against the notable popularity of communicative planning in the field of planning practice, it is striking how much criticism the theory of communicative planning has attracted during the past two decades. A fair share of this criticism has been levelled against the main theoretical source of inspiration of the theory, the philosopher Jürgen Habermas. This study revisits the Habermasian roots of communicative planning. It aims at resurrecting and recasting the Habermasian roots of communicative planning theory not only by replying to criticisms encountered by the theory but also suggesting some novel uses for Habermas's philosophy in the field of planning.