This theoretical paper is about the professionalization of urban planning in Colombia (which is still on-going) from the 1960s to the 1980s. It highlights three types of discourse used by urban planners regarding the role of urban planning in the country: the technicalmethodological, the socio-technical, and the reactive discourse. It also points to the role played by certain academic communities in legitimizing or criticizing the comprehensive planning paradigm. This descriptive study is based on the testimonies of various urban planners and publications from the period in question. They are interpreted under the general distinction made between procedural and substantive theories of planning. The goal is to offer a provisional framework for the understanding of the place assigned to urban planning and its specialists, within the context of academic and governmental institutions, as part of a theory