Re-Thinking Planning as Catalyzing Emergence and Novelty: A Case of Planning for Complexity at the Regional Scale

Abstract

This thesis documents and critically reflects on the story of the learning journey of devising and contextualising a collaborative regional planning methodology and the re-thinking of 'planning', 'regions' and 'sustainability'. The study articulates a 'whole of community' regional planning, dialogue process that utilized insights from complexity science, collaborative planning theory and soft systems thinking. The focus of the thesis is on how regional communities and stakeholders can collaboratively appraise the sustainability of new regional enterprises and both co-design and plan new industry pathways. This case study demonstrates that a collaborative dialogue and conversational mapping methodology, using explicit hermeneutical principles is an effective way to capture the essence, design principles and stakeholder advice about a sustainable regional tourism venture. Further, that an open, exploratory planning approach can co-ordinate a regional scale conversation that is capable of synergising collaborative learning and developing a shared systems picture between regional stakeholders, agencies, communities, landholders and Aboriginal communities.