The International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) selected three areas of inquiry as its focal concerns for the years 1984-1989. The first of these centered on the influences on each other of education and technological development, and on the implications of these mutual influences for educational planning on a national scale, particularly in a world in which technological and scientific knowledge and powers are not equally distributed among nations. The second concern was to reassess the role of educational planning in light of the growing realization that education is a societywide process not limited to the activities of formal institutions. The third focal point was the interrelationship among education, the educational planner, and political decision-makers--an inquiry into the tasks and functions of educational planning itself. All three themes involve assessment of the fundamental relevance of educational planning to society in general. These three topics were made the subjects of the IIEP's October 1983 seminar. This document presents the paper that proposed the three central topics to the seminar participants, summary reports on the deliberations of the three working groups that met at the seminar, and reflections on the implications of the seminar's presentations and discussions. (PGD)