Reviewing the position of normative ethical theories in professional ethical codes of urban planning using Meta-synthesis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Art., Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Art., Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Urban planning, as a professional activity, is ethically complex. and all its aspects, from theoretical thoughts to professional activities, are related to ethical issues. This relationship is so strong that for thinking clearly and comprehensively about planning one should develop some understanding of how key ideas in ethics relate to planning and their integration with this profession. One way of integrating ethical ideas with the planning profession is to integrate it with the professional codes. This research aims to present a clear image of the relationship between the philosophy of ethics and the planning profession, in particular the codes of professional ethics, and examines the position of these ethical theories in these codes. The results of the synthesis of qualitative studies and the examination of the relationship between the principles extracted from these studies and the principles found in the ethical codes of Iran, the United States and Canada show that the American ethical codes are most closely related to ethical theories and various ethical ideas have been involved in the formulation of the content of these codes, from classical theories to more recent t, from teleological theories to deontological Theories and virtue ethics. In Canada's codes of professional ethics, almost all ethical theories examined in qualitative research can be traced, especially environmental ethics and its different approaches. Ethical codes related to planning in Iran have a limited relationship with normative theories, and the relevant ones are related to more classical ethical theories such as Kant's and Ross's theories.

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