During
the past decades, the concept of public interest has been severely criticized. It
nevertheless remains to be a key normative reference point against which urban
planning may be evaluated and justified. The article claims that there are
multiple conceptions of public interest that coexist in everyday planning
practice. These conceptions are grounded in the ancient debate on the duties of
the State. In the article, four different approaches to public interest were
recognized on the basis of two dimensions of the concept. These dimensions are
individual/collective and regulation/non-regulation. The theoretical
assumptions were tested with interview data of Finnish planning professionals.
The coexistence of multiple conceptions of public interest was revealed. This
ambiguity makes public interest dubious as a rhetorical tool. Without the
explication of the discursive context, the concept is largely devoid of
meaning. Thus, when truly seeking justification to planning decisions, with
reference to “public interest”, the explication of the context and the
discursive framework applied is necessary.