Calculate, Communicate, and Innovate: Do We Need “Innovate” as a Third Position?

Abstract

“Innovation” has become a pertinent and frequently used term in relation to public-sector administration and planning. This article is a review of the planning theory debate from the 1960s until today focusing on the definitions, understandings, and uses of the innovation. We seek to answer the following three questions regarding the use of the overlapping terms “innovate,” “innovative,” and “innovation” in planning theory texts: (i) To what extent have they been used? (ii) In what sense and to what purpose? and (iii) Are we heading for a third position (“innovate”) in planning theory, such that “communicate,” “calculate,” and “innovate” are three interplaying approaches?