The role of values in the use of sociology in planning
Samenvatting
Instead of a blind "religion of progress" (in which progress has no other meaning than technological progress) the value system that is the foundation of planning should be focused on forecasting & diminishing the conflicts, which are the products of technological changes. Indispensible for such a value system is a Utopia (the optimal combination chosen from all prognosed possible combinations). Sociol should play an important role in clarifying both the utopian & the present situation. Planning, understood as changing infrastructure, is at present reacting on present needs. The proposed view of planning does not focus on infrastructure as an answer to needs but on infrastructure as a more or less autonomous soc force that is creating new needs. That is why final goals & final utopia should not be too much elaborated, if planning is to remain flexible & dynamic. Planning, with its core of utopia, must make clear the relation between the utopia with the individual Leitbilder (guiding images) & with pol'al decisions. To answer the questions that planning poses, & to realize planning with people (not for people), sociol has to develop a sociol'al theory & logic of planning. H. Van de Belt.
