Not over your dead bodies ! A Lacanian interpretation of urban planning discourse and practice

This paper examines aspects of Lacanian critical social theory in terms of its appropriateness for understanding urban planning. We tell a story from planning practice in Western Australia which we then analyse by introducing Lacan's notion of the master signifier and the sets of knowledges, va...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environment and planning. A 2005-06, Vol.37 (6), p.1049-1066
Main Authors: HILLIER, J, GUNDER, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Australia
Australia, Western Australia
Bgi / Prodig
Discourse
Ecology
Environment
Human geography
Lacan, Jacques
Practice
Q1
Q3
Social theory
Urban geography
Urban planning
Urbanism and town planning
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Summary:This paper examines aspects of Lacanian critical social theory in terms of its appropriateness for understanding urban planning. We tell a story from planning practice in Western Australia which we then analyse by introducing Lacan's notion of the master signifier and the sets of knowledges, values and practices which master signifiers embody. We then apply the Lacanian concepts of desire and jouissance, followed by an exploration of the Lacanian four discourses and the speech acts, or language games, of the planner and the 'planned'. We conclude by estimating the potential value of Lacanian analysis for understanding planning praxis.
ISSN:0308-518X
1472-3409
DOI:10.1068/a37152