TEACHING A FUTURES-SEEKING COMMUNICATIVE POLICY PROCESS

This article examines how teaching in regional planning at the Departm ent of Regional Studies and Environmental Policy of the University of Tampere in Finland provides students with views of development and mod es of thinking about planning that bind together futures-oriented stra tegic thinking and interactive communicative policy processes. First, the ongoing change in policy-making procedures is surveyed with the he lp of the concepts of government of uncertainty and governance of ambi guity. Second, attention is focused on futures-seeking communicative s trategy which is one form of governance of ambiguity. Third, a course in regional planning is briefly presented as an example of both innova tive teaching methods and of the combining of policy processes and fut ures-seeking strategic planning.