Planning of change

The first edition of The Planning of Change was published in 1961, the second in 1969 and the third in 1976. This fourth edition shows both continuities with the previous editions and departures from them.
All have sought to contribute to the unfinished task of merging and reconciling the arts of social practice and action and the sciences of human behavior. This task, as we see it, presents both an intellectual and a practical, moral challenge to those who would improve the quality of life in American society. Living in an age whose single constant is change, all men and women are in urgent need of whatever resources can be made available as they seek to understand and manage themselves and their environments, to understand and solve the unprecedented personal and social problems that confront them.

The intellectual challenge comes from the necessity to develop an adequate theory of the processes through which knowledge of human behavior and of human systems is applied and utilized. More particularly, a theory of applying and adapting theories of social, interpersonal, and personal dynamics to the special case of deliberate changing is required. All editions have sought to bring together some of the best current con ceptualizations of various aspects of utilization and change processes. The practical, moral challenge lies in inventing and developing social technologies, consistent with our best social and behavioral knowledge and adequate to the practical and moral requirements of contemporary change situations. All editions have sought to present discussions and evaluations of a rapidly growing body of change technologies, viewed not as isolated methods for achieving and guiding change, but rather in their intellectual, practical, and moral bearings and implications.

Another part of the practical challenge is the development of persons who can function effectively and responsibly as agents of planned change. This edition, as well as its predecessors, has been designed to provide material aid in the education of such agents. Change agents are now being educated in various departments of social and behavioral science as well as in various professional schools. We have tried to keep the needs of this scattered academic audience in mind. As in the case of its prede cessors, this edition should prove useful in departments of psychology, sociology, and anthropology and in schools of public and business admin istration, social work, education, theology, nursing and other health professions, and public health as well.

How does this fourth edition differ from the third? About two-fifths of the readings in this edition are new. This change reflects the current rapid expansion and development of theory-building, research, and prac tical experimentation in applied social and behavioral science in this coun try and abroad. We have tried to reflect the contours of this developing field of study in this edition. Changes of emphasis in applied behavioral science have also occurred in response to the turbulent social environment of the 1960s and later and the various liberation movements which that decade released.

These changes have been reflected throughout the present edition. It is hard to know where to begin and where to end in acknowledging the contributions of the many people who have helped us, directly and indirectly, in preparing this book. Our most direct debt is to those con tributors whose work we have reprinted. Specific acknowledgement of our obligation to each of them and to their publishers is made at the beginning of each selection.

The index shows many names in addition to those of our contrib utors. In a number of cases, these writers have published work that we wished to include. Space limitations made inclusion impossible. We are nevertheless grateful for their very real help in maturing our own thinking.