Metaphor and Analogy as Elements of a Theory of Similarity for Planning

Making innovative relationships and generating creative ideas are important for planning. In this paper I examine metaphor and analogy as sources for creative ideas and examine the difficulties in instrumentalizing them as methods of planning. By tracing metaphor and analogy to their epistemological roots I show that these difficulties are overcome by using similarity as a framework for thinking about planning. An explicit idea of similarity legitimates the examination of key relationships and opens up issues in planning. The discussion suggests a teleologically driven search for similarities among different fields of inquiry and cautions against over reliance on Newtonian morphological thinking in planning. The argument is exemplified by the war on poverty metaphor in American public policy.