REVIEWS
| Date | 01 December 1988 |
| Published date | 01 December 1988 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1988.tb00708.x |
REVIEWS
PLANNING UNDER PRESSURE: THE STRATEGIC CHOICE APPROACH
John
Friend
and
Alan
Hickling
Pergamon
Press,
1987.
338pp.
$40.00 (cloth),
217.50
(paper)
John
Friend's contribution to the study of public policy
has
never been as fully acknowledged
in either the academic world or the world
of
practice as the quality of that work would
lead one to expect. Starting with his pioneering work based on planning processes in
Coventry with Neil Jessop, who died shortly before the publication of
Local Government
and
Strategic Choice,
he has worked with a number
of
colleagues in developing the ideas
which had their origin in that project.
This
book, with his colleague Alan Hickling who has worked with
John
Friend on many
projects, is the latest product of that work. It is designed as an 'introductory guide and
a quick reference handbook to the strategic choice approach. It is very much a practical
guide. Well-presented, the text is supplemented with
89
full-page diagrams spread through
the book, summarizing and illustrating the approach. The book is clear, easily followed
and readily understood.
Strategic choice for the authors is distinguished from planning at a strategic level. Strategic
choice is concerned with 'the making of
any
decisions
in
the light of their links to other
decisions, whether they
be
at a broader policy level or a more speclfic action level; whether
they be more immediate
or
longer term in their time horizons; and no matter who may
be responsible for them'.
The book to a large extent presents a technology for strategic choice, but it is not a
technology for making strategic choices, rather for 'assisting and encouraging effective
communication and interaction within a workmg group'. For the authors
see
strategic choice
not
as
something which can be determined by analysis but rather by judgement. Planning
as a process of strategic choice is seen by them as a craft 'full of subtlety and challenge;
a craft through which people can develop their capacity to think and act creatively
in
coping with the complexities and uncertainties that beset them in practice'.
One has to recognize
this
as the intention of the authors.
As
one studies the methodology
-
option graphs showing compatibilities and incompatibilities within a problem
focus,
decision
schemes
setting
out feasible combinations of options, comparison areas and relative
assessments provih a basis
for
judgmg courses
of
action etc.
-
one could easily get
the impression on a superficial reading that technology made the strategic choice. Indeed
the approaches outlined are meant as a starting point, whereas perhaps too many will
see
them as a standard approach
-
the very reverse
of
the authors' intention.
The
care
with which the diagrams are drawn, the detail
of
the approach, even the desaip
tion
of
the best way to arrange rooms for discussions of the strategic approach are all
a product of the enthusiasm of the authors and their rigour of exposition. Yet it is these
very merits that can conceal the real contribution of the authors.
For
the subtlety
of
the ideas can be hidden by the technology. Many of the most
interesting concepts are passed over quickly, although some are explored in other works
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