Thinking through complex values

The chapter Thinking through complex values is part of the book Cerreta M., Concilio G., Monno V., Making Strategies in Spatial Planning. Knowledge and Values, that contains discussion of specific issues in urban planning which require new practices and approaches. The interdisciplinary material is supported by practical experiences. Includes useful references and practical examples of integration between strategic planning and evaluations. The book aims to improve decision-making processes in different urban contexts, and discusses strategic spatial planning with emphasis on the role of values and cognitions dynamics within the planning-evaluation interplay. In the book, values and cognitions dynamics are investigated as crucial aspects of planning practices devoted to the development of strategic actions strictly linked to spatial contexts. Different methodologies and approaches are examined to support collaborative decision making and to manage comprehensive and participatory knowledge throughout strategic planning processes. The discussion is carried out from both theoretical and practical points of view. The book also dissects the multiple meanings of strategic planning and its implication in terms of mobilization and creation of values and knowledge. Critical issues are examined in relation to both the dynamics of negotiation and construction of diverse values and knowledge in planning processes, and in relation to some experiences carried out in different urban contexts. The chapter explores how thinking through complex values can support the structuring of integrated decision-making by orienting it towards the elaboration of strategic goals and actions able to create new values from the plurality of knowledge and the specificity of the context. With its normative, spatial, temporal, cultural, social, and cognitive features, the context becomes the frame in which planning responses and behaviours1 can be shaped. In its first part, this chapter explores the connection between values, knowledge and strategies, focussing on their interdependencies. Values make explicit the relations between different knowledge forms; conversely, the interaction of knowledge makes it possible to recognize values. At the same time, knowledge orients value and value represents the measure of knowledge. The second part of the chapter discusses the role of evaluation within an integrated perspective, which is seen as an “opportunity” to elaborate strategies and “organize hopes” in spatial planning. The integrated perspective considers evaluation as an activity embedded in the planning process and supporting many other activities in that process, each time playing a different role. Within an integrated perspective evaluation underpins the dialogue between knowledge and values in order to translate such dialogue into the planning of strategic objectives and actions; it enables the identification of relevant values and related meanings, the exploration of opportunities and the creation of alternatives; it measures possible impacts and effects while managing complex and multiple priority systems. The third part of the chapter focuses on three case studies, in which the evaluation process was structured in an integrated perspective guided by complex value-focused thinking and based on a “combinatorial philosophy”. The use of combinatorial assessment methodologies is becoming a widespread practice. They are seen as flexible tools able to overcome the limits of each single method, to accommodate a multi-dimensional and plural perspective and improve the quality of the decision-making process. These three cases represent different attempts to identify complex values as premises for the process at hand, and to exploit the plurality and diversity of knowledge in order to identify situated strategies. Finally, this chapter reflects the strengths and weaknesses of integrated approaches and highlights the need to view evaluation and planning as reciprocally embedded, mutually shaping activities. It may well be argued that within the field of integrative approaches, the recognition of value (economic, non-economic and intrinsic) assumes a fundamental role and is closely linked to different forms of knowledge. Through their interaction strategic objectives and evaluation criteria are identified, scenarios constructed, decisional rules deduced and sectoral assessments implemented in order to create and prioritize alternative options. The use of a combination of techniques penetrates and includes informal, „soft spaces‟ of decision, able to complement the more formal process, combining flexible and functional approaches with formal development plan strategies, and considering decision support versus discussion support.