Equity, Discourse, and Action: An Inflective Paradigm Linking Planning, Participation, and Natural Science

Abstract

William R. Freudenburg’s work contributes to an understanding of how local and external factors influence environmental quality through land-use planning and growth management. A recent Adirondack planning study (Ruzow Holland, 2010) explores and analyzes, through the methodological lens of Participatory Action Research (PAR), how the town comprehensive planning process evolved within the community of Willsboro, New York (2010 Population 2025). Access to knowledge, technology, and deliberative decision making reduces the power of the “Privileged,” including external influences, to control the rate and type of local land development. The analysis illustrates the conversion point(s) of Freudenburg’s sociology of knowledge, power, and natural resources with the lessons learned from a place-based PAR, land-use planning project.

Citation

Ruzow Holland, A. (2013), "Equity, Discourse, and Action: An Inflective Paradigm Linking Planning, Participation, and Natural Science", William R. Freudenburg, A Life in Social Research (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 91-107. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0196-1152(2013)0000021010