Culture and Planning for Change and Continuity in Botswana

Abstract

This paper examines how culture might be integrated in planning by critically rethinking the role of planners and knowledge in the planning systems of postcolonial contexts. The empirical study of cultural conception and utilization in Botswana suggests a shift from planning for culture to cultural institutionalization, where culture, rather than as an object, becomes integral to development planning decisions. The traditional division between bottom–up and top–down approaches is challenged, so as to allow a wider range of actors and views to interact during the entire planning process.