Collaborative planning in a stakeholder society

norms and criteria. Because of the variety of manifestations of spatial change, their social meaning and relevance have to be constructed and interpreted in the context of concrete places and the lives of real people and companies. They have then to be translated not merely into legal administrative terms but into the way stakeholders are thinking. Strategic place making undertaken in a collaborative way helps to articulate a shared language which can relate the concrete realities of lived experiences to general principles and organising ideas and then translate them back into arguments to be used in framing investment and regulatory decisions. Such a style of place making develops into a framework which serves to shape and coordinate the actions and attitudes of many stakeholders (Schon and Rein, 1994; Faludi, 1996; Healey et al., 1997). The process of strategy development is a critical activity in this approach. Often undertaken through informal or specially-created fora, it is through processes of interactive strategic imagining and consensus building that such a language can be created, with its storylines and metaphors. The vehicle of a This content downloaded on Fri, 1 Mar 2013 09:13:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions