A cybernetic perspective on policy-making and planning in local government

This thesis explores some of the central problems confronting policymakers and planners in local government. These problems are seen to stem from a view of planning which is characterised as top-down. Previous attempts to apply cybernetic ideas to these problems - characterised as the 'systems approach' - have failed partly on account of their failure to question this view. Cybernetics, it is argued, offers a fundamentally different perspective on planning, which emphasises the importance of processes, whereby the plans and policies of different organisations are mutually adjusted to each other - from the bottom up. The dynamics of this process are examined and cybernetics, most notably the work of Ashby, is shown to offer a number of insights into how it can be facilitated. Such a radical re-assessment of the nature of planning requires, at the same time, a much wider conception of the role of policy. Policies, it is suggested, are all too often thought of as purely prescriptive. A policy framework must instead be regarded as incorporating also a complex hierarchy of values, aims, goals and objectives, whose inter-relationships can be compared to that between the various components of a body of scientific knowledge. Such a perspective on planning and policy-making points towards a novel conception of government. Instead of imposing order from above, its primary function would become that of facilitating and encouraging the mutual adjustment process and collaboration between local organisations.

Grantor dc:publisher

Brunel University School of Engineering and Design PhD Theses

Year dc:date.issued

1983

Author dc:creator

• Floyd, Michael

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stewart, D

• Policy-makers
• Planners
• Systems approach
• Nature of planning
• Policy framework

Language dc:language.iso

en

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5291

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:bura.brunel.ac.uk:2438/5291