Planners' Role: Torn between Dialogical Ideals and Neo-liberal Realities

Planners are inclined to be in favour of public involvement and open processes and opposed to manipulation and lenient control of developers. The hypothesis here is that the attitudes of the typical Nordic planner, in particular, are much closer to communicative planning theory than to New Public Management. The planner role is currently under cross pressure from conflicting values and expectations held by educators and part of the professional community influenced by communicative planning theory on the one hand, and politicians and administrators promoting New Public Management on the other hand. However, patches of common ground are also identified and analysed, in particular the concern for user influence, service quality, and client satisfaction.