Polyphonic environmental planning processes: establishing conceptual connections between procedural and recognition justice

By drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of polyphony, this paper theorises polyphonic environmental planning processes. It argues that Bakhtin's vision of polyphony reveals new insights about the nature of inclusive and transformative environmental planning processes that align and contrast with existing traditions of participatory planning. The polyphonic environmental planning processes are theorised as having two criteria: difference and relationship. The conditions needed to satisfy these criteria are explained through procedural and recognition justice accounts. The paper intervenes in the ongoing scholarly discussion about the ethical base of contemporary planning theories by suggesting that the polyphonic construction of environmental planning processes will have implications on the form and content of these processes. In terms of the form, the polyphonic environmental planning processes imply the creation of an inclusive, dialogical space. In terms of the content, recognising the intrinsic value of otherness will alter the self–other relationship.