Beyond Confused Noise: Ideas Toward Communicative Procedural Justice

Abstract

In this article, I discuss local planning decision making as a form of public policy making undertaken by the state and involving some degree of public participation. I am interested in communlcative action as a normative basis for participatory decision making of public policy matters. Empirically, however, differences of discourses have led to participants talking past each other rather than negotiating with each other. Using a case study from Perth, Western Australia, I demonstrate the idea of procedural justice and examine the reasons for participants' dissatisfaction with public participation processes. I then develop some tentative principles for a more procedurally just communicative planning practice.