Planning as Persuasive Storytelling: The Rhetorical Construction of Chicago's Electric Future (New Practices of Inquiry) - Softcover

Throgmorton, James A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226799646 ISBN 13: 9780226799643

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996

Synopsis

Planning as Persuasive Storytelling is a revealing look at the world of political conflict surrounding the Commonwealth Edison Company's ambitious nuclear power plant construction program in northern Illinois during the 1980s. Examining the clash between the utility, consumer groups, community-based groups, the Illinois Commerce Commission, and the City of Chicago, Throgmorton argues that planning can best be thought of as a form of persuasive storytelling. A planner's task is to write future-oriented texts that employ language and figures of speech designed to persuade their constituencies of the validity of their vision. Juxtaposing stories about efforts to construct Chicago's electric future, Planning as Persuasive Storytelling suggests a shift in how we think about planning. In order to account for the fragmented and conflicted nature of contemporary American life and politics, that shift would be away from "science" and the "experts" and toward rhetoric and storytelling.

About this title

Synopsis

This is a look at the world of political conflict surrounding the Commonwealth Edison Company's ambitious nuclear power plant construction programme in northern Illinois during the 1980s. Examining the clash between the utility, consumer groups, community-based groups, the Illinois Commerce Commission and the City of Chicago, Throgmorton argues that planning can best be thought of as a form of persuasive storytelling. A planner's task is to write future-oriented texts that employ language and figures of speech designed to persuade their constituencies of the validity of their vision. Juxtaposing stories about efforts to construct Chicago's electric future, this study suggests a shift in how we think about planning. In order to account for the fragmented and conflicted nature of contemporary American life and politics, that shift would be away from "science" and the "experts", and toward rhetoric and storytelling.

About the Author

James A. Throgmorton is Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Iowa.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226799646
• ISBN 13: 9780226799643
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 338