Social planning orientations: exercises in compliance or planned social change?

The author presents the idea that the established conceptual bases for the practice of social planning no longer apply to the circumstances that define the current planning environment. The idea is based on the observation that the practice of social planning in the public sector is primarily an exercise in complying with prescribed protocols and regulations in order to legitimize the expenditure of funds for social programs. The observation is derived from experience with four major social planning programs: Area Agencies on Aging; Community Action Programs; State Social Service (Title XX) Agencies; and Health Systems Agencies. Common experiences in these agencies suggest the need for an additional orientation to planning. A negotiated-operational orientation that is more closely aligned to the environmental conditions of the social planning experiences is described. The ability of the social planner to use this orientation as an additional frame of reference is seen as a key factor determining whether compliance or social change will be a dominant characteristic of social planning in the 1980s.