Love Ethics to Guide Planning/Policy Transformation

As the human experience demonstrates, the most powerful generative tool we have is the power of love. Yet, love is never taught nor spoken of in our classrooms or City Hall. Without the practice of love, can we truly transform our ignoble history of planning injustice? Or will we just substitute the identities of who’s in power? This chapter draws from the teachings of love ethics advanced by bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh as well as the author’s efforts to apply the ethics of love in planning and policy justice movements. The author seeks to offer concrete ethical guidelines to support practices that transform rather than replicate systems of oppression and injustice.