Practicing Strategic Planning: In Search of Critical Features to Explain the Strategic Character of Plans

Abstract Strategic planning is “hot” in many places (cities, regions, etc.) today. And, the literature on strategic planning is expanding (Healey 2007; Balducci et al. 2011; Oosterlynck et al. 2011). As in traditional planning, there are different traditions of strategic planning and there is no one way or best way to do strategic planning. But to what extent are the (often self-proclaimed) strategic plans really strategic? To what extent are they different from traditional planning? The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the critical features that make these plans really strategic. We look at the reasons to embark on a strategic planning process; context: political, institutional, challenges ahead, problems, etc.; issues, actors, legal status of the plan in the official planning system; momentum, time frame of the plan, plan horizon, and the link with projects. In this way we intend to question and enrich our own view, in theory and in practice, of strategic planning, which we have constructed over the last decade (Albrechts 2004, 2006; Motte 2006; Balducci 2008).

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