Values of Planners

This questionnaire comes from a study performed by Elizabeth Howe and Jerome Kaufman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and published in 1981 as "The values of contemporary American planners," Journal of the american Planning Association, 47, 266-278.

Below are a series of statements about planning and planners.

Some are strongly worded to try to elicit differences of opinion among people. This gives them a black-and-white quality which may not always feel comfortable. Please indicate the answer which comes closest to your real opinion. The set of items may also seem contradictory or inconsistent. It's not meant in any way to trip you up; there are no right or wrong answers.

Each statement has six possible answers:

1. strongly disagree
2. disagree
3. slightly disagree
4. slightly agree
5. agree
6. strongly agree

On a separate piece of paper, write a list of numbers from 1 to 13. Then for each of the following questions write the number which corresponds to your opinion.

1. Planners should keep their notions about public policy in check, resisting public revelation of strong attitudes which might raise doubts about their objectivity.
2. Where few or no already established groups exist in support of a particular planning effort, the planner should help form such groups and actively make use of them.
3. Plans should stand or fall for their acceptance on their technical quality and internal logic.
4. A planner's effectiveness is based primarily on his/her reputation for objective, accurate and in-depth analysis.
5. Planning should be placed in the governmental structure so that it can easily get involved in political disputes that relate to its area of competence.
6. Planners should primarily be trained to develop technically correct solutions to planning problems.
7. If planners meet opposition to their plan from non-governmental interest groups, they should try to neutralize or counteract it by mobilizing support in favor of the plan from other interest groups.
8. There is a strong need for planning to be long-range (10-20 years).
9. Planners should lobby actively to defeat proposals that they think are harmful, even if it means challenging powerful interests.
10. The essence of planning is rationality
11. Planners should allow their values to influence the choice of policy in drawing up plans.
12. Planners should be open participants in the planning process, staking their values in competition with others, and openly striving to achieve their ends.
13. Planners should try to influence decisions primarily by disseminating and facilitating the use of technical planning information.

When you have responded to all of these questions, go the scoring page.

602