Forester, John F

Professor

research

research and scholarship focus

  • Participatory Planning Processes
  • Ethics and Deliberative Democracy
  • Public Dispute Resolution and Multi-party Mediated Negotiations
  • Oral Histories of Planning Practitioners

affiliations

faculty appointment in

member of graduate field

teaching

teaching focus

  • Community Service Workshop: Urban Studies Fieldwork
  • People, Politics, and Planning in the City (previously Planning, Politics, and Decision-Making)
  • Introduction to Community and Environmental Dispute Resolution
  • Ethics and Practical Judgment in Planning
  • Critical Theory and the Micropolitics of Practice
  • Doctoral Seminars
  • Professional Writing and Publishing

service

current professional activities

    • Mediator, Community Dispute Resolution Center of Tompkins County
    • Consultant, Consensus Building Institute
    • Consulting: Preservation Association of the Southern Tier (with Robt Rich) April 2007.
    • Seminar: Critical Pragmatism/Neo-Liberalism, U. Washington, Seattle. May 2007.
    • Editorial Team Member, Planning Theory and Practice.
    • External Ph.D. Examiner: School of Architecture, Oslo, Norway.
    • Editorial Boards: Administration and Society, J. American Planning Association.
    • Moderator, Plenary Panel, Planners’ Network Conf., New Orleans, June 2008.
    • MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Visiting Committee, November 2007.
    • Keynote Speaker, Workshop on Comparative Dispute Resolution, Seoul, Korea, November 14-15, 2007.
    • Workshop on Spaces of Democracy, Newcastle, England, January 9-11, 2008.
    • Short Course: Negotiation, Mediation & Democratic Practice, Telluride Assoc., Ithaca, NY. January 2008.

background

educational background

  • Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1977
  • Master of City Planning, University of California, Berkeley, 1974
  • M.S., University of California, Berkeley, 1971
  • B.S., University of California, Berkeley, 1970

professional background

  • Chair, Department of City and Regional Planning, 1998-2001
  • Associate Dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning

featured in

publications

selected publications (listing in progress)

  • Israeli Planners and Designers: Profiles of Community Builders (SUNY Press 2001, co-edited with Raphael Fischler and Deborah Shmueli)
  • The Deliberative Practitioner (MIT Press 1999)
  • He is working on a book, tentatively entitled The Drama of Mediation, exploring the challenges of participatory planning processes.
  • Articles published 2007-2008

    • "On Participation, Negotiation, and the Lessons of Third Party Mediation Efforts," Proceedings of the opening conference of the Laboratorio per la Progettazione Ecologica ed Ambientale del Territorio, Dipartimento di Architettura ed Urbanistica,Università degli Studi di Catania. 2007.

    • "Exploring Values-Based Disputes" translated by Prof. Laura Lieto for publication in the Italian planning journal, Critica della Razionalità Urbanistica, published by Alinea, Firenze. 2007.

    • "No Longer Muddling Through: Institutional Designs Fostering Dialogue, Getting the Facts, and Encouraging Mediated-Negotiations," in Niraj Verma, ed. Current Research in Urban and Regional Studies.Elsevier 2007.
    • "Participation as Dialogue, Debate, and Negotiation: Entangled Promises and Practices," in the International Journal of Public Participation (2007), revised and reprinted in Governance Reform Under Real World Conditions, to be published by the World Bank's Communication and Governance Accountability Program (CommGAP).
  • “Reflections on the Future Understanding of Planning Practice.” International Planning Studies. 4:2, 175-193. 1999. To be reprinted in Classics in Planning: Urban Planning, eds. T. Levent, P. Batey, K. Burton, and P. Nijkamp. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. 2007.

    • “Expanding Problem Frames to Understand Human-wildlife Conflicts in Urban-proximate Parks.” Kirsten M. Leong, Daniel J. Decker, John Forester, Paul D. Curtis, Margaret A. Wild. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration. 25:4, 62-78. Winter 2007.

    • "Propositional and Performative Argumentation: Lessons From the Field," J. Forester and D. Kahane, Chapter 11 in Realizing Deliberative Democracy, D. Kahane, D. Leydet, D. Weinstock and M. Williams, eds. University of British Columbia Press. Forthcoming 2008.

    • “Learning in Practice: Public Policy Mediation,” David Laws and J. Forester, for Henk Wagenaar, eds. Special Issue of Critical Policy Analysis (forthcoming 2008).

    • Edited: “Interface: Community Planning and Planning for Real: A Profile of Tony Gibson, with commentaries by Reinhard Goethert, Michael Parkes, Ken Reardon, Iolanda Romano, and Margaret Seip,” Planning Theory and Practice. Vol 9:1, March 2008.

contact

email address

jff1@cornell.edu