Questioning the power of normative ethics in planning

It is widely accepted that planning is an interventionist activity based on taking actions to realize better outcomes, and that these actions are, in turn, informed by ethical judgments, but what role does power plan in making, defending or challenging these judgements? This chapter explores how the philosophical underpinning of normative ethical reasoning opens or closes the possibility for different sorts of judgement to be made, and that in this normative ethics can support or unsettle the less visible structures of power, presented by Lukes (1974) in his analysis of its three faces. The paper explores how this resonates with some of the post-foundationalist analyses of planning, but goes beyond their critique to make explicit the implicit normativity in challenges to the established order. It argues that explicit normative thinking, around situated substantive values which reframe grounds for judgement, can make apparent, then challenge the way power structures interests and decision-making.