all stakeholders; b) The planning process is stopped and restarted from
the beginning – this time considering all key actors. Apart from annoying
former participants, this also causes a considerable delay in fi nalizing the
plan implementation. Advantages and disadvantages of both alternatives
have to be taken into consideration. It is important to deal openly with
such confl ict situations. This requires that all participants develop an understanding for the tension arising between meeting the directives and
the necessity of a fl exible adaptation.
Planning seen as an iterative process makes it easier to react to undesirable developments and to learn from mistakes before they have disastrous
consequences. However, this only applies when mistakes are recognized
and people react to and learn from them. Iteration leads step-by-step
through processes of recognition and learning to solving problems on
a broad social basis. It leads to solutions and agreements accepted by all
participants. These are processes that via diversions and resistance lead to
changes, which in turn are the prerequisites for sustainable developme