Roy,
I believe emergent learning can (and does) happen with or without planning and design. I believe it can be facilitated through open space type approaches... therefore, there is "room" for planning and design. Creating the space to allow for emergence of learning is where the planning and design comes in. I believe the plan and design can create the trajectory of the learning, just as MOOCs have created the trajectory for many emerging pedagogies, etc... and it is the MOOC that brings things back to alignment with the trajectory. Emergent learning often strays, it is the plan and design that brings it back.
I come at this from a agile software development perspective and a M.Ed IT perspective. I see emergent design can also be applied to emergent learning; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergent_Design I hope this helps with the contradiction...
A big part of my work as an autodidact / heutagogue is in encouraging my own emergence... I think solo learning is a big part of learning... a large number of people are not social and I believe this cohort learns well on thier own. And should be able to "manage" their own emergent learning... I have techniques for this.
Be Well...
