Toward a New Paradigm of Planning

Abstract

Written by an international consultant in Sustainable Human Development and former UNESCO official, this article offers a philosophical reflection on the foundations and challenges of strategic planning in the face of the accelerated changes of the contemporary world. The author raises 25 questions organized into four major themes: the real capacity to think in the long term, the tension between irreversibility and anticipation, the dilemma between rational-operational thinking and creative innovation, and the conditions for sound social rationality. The text critically examines the dominance of market ideology and speculative financial thinking over public planning, and proposes building a White Paper on the Social and the Ethical 2050, inspired by philosopher Edgar Morin, as a guiding instrument for transforming toward a new planetary vision grounded in equity and sustainability.