An Approach to Planning Discourse Analysis

The field of planning discourse is associated with two main approaches to planning: one that is based in social theory and another that is related to discourse analysis as practised in cognitive science. In both domains, the aim of the analysis is to reveal policies, ideologies, linguistic structures, etc. that are represented by the discourse. This paper looks not beyond the discourse, but rather at the dynamics of the discourse itself. It does so by means of the SIRN (synergetic inter-representation network) approach that was originally inspired by Bartlett in a study of remembering that also provided the foundation for discourse analysis as practised in cognitive science. The usefulness of the SIRN approach is illustrated by reference to empirical data obtained from participatory observation of a planning team that worked on a plan for the city of Beer Sheva, Israel, during the years 1994—97.