Abstract

Historically the plan has been about much more than economic planning. By plan-based thought I mean a concept of social governance that requires a multiple but structured articulation of social, economic, administrative and political forces and institutions and aims at shaping new forms of integration and social control using a specific scientific discourse.The following essays provide an analysis of global planning starting from different historical and geographical situations and different disciplinary perspectives. The broad picture that emerges shows points of continuity and discontinuity between different contexts and theories but also reveals a common theme: the conflictual relationship between economics and politics which not only reflects the hierarchies between state and society but also shows the dialectic between different forms and conceptions of power and their social reproduction. Plan-based thought does not only concern temporary institutional transformations, but reacts and is connected to the management of social conflicts over time.