This volume investigates how the shift toward argumentative and discursive approaches in policy analysis and planning redefines the relationship between technical expertise and democratic participation. The authors, Frank Fischer and John Forester, assemble a collection of essays from prominent scholars to challenge the traditional positivist view of policy-making as a purely objective, value-neutral process. By framing policy analysis as a communicative practice, the text argues that planners must account for the social, political, and linguistic contexts in which decisions are formulated and implemented.

Experts recognize this work as a foundational text for understanding the post-positivist turn in planning theory. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which serves as a primary resource for graduate-level study in public policy and urban planning.