An Informational Perspective of Planning : A New Conceptual Basis for the Study of Planning

Abstract

Planning is the human-social activity that is designed to ac upon and react to the environment for the purpose of changing it. In this conceptualization, planning is inherently an information system resulting from dynamic interactions between information and its human users. This view can be clarified further by looking into the ongoing transactions taking place across the boundary between the system and its environment, which can be observed in terms of the system's major functions input; conversion; and output. These functions are viewed here to be fused into an integrated process. The input is the information the system takes from the environment. It represents continuous "mappings" and "feedbacks" between the system and its environment, which bring some change into the definition of environment. It is virally important for the system, particularly at its higher level(system-structure level) or at its initial stage, to redefine continously new characteristics of the environment.