Urban Planning Theory Since 1945

Abstract

This book describes the history of town planning theory since the end of the Second World War (1945). Over this fifty-year period ideas about town planning have changed significantly. Yet students of town planning lack a book which describes, in an accessible way, the recent development of ideas which have informed their discipline. This book aims to fulfil that purpose. As part of their town planning studies, students usually take some course in 'planning theory'. But as I know from my own experience of teaching this subject, students find the subject difficult. Part of this difficulty may be due to the intrinsic nature of the subject-matter, which deals with ideas and arguments rather than the accumulation and transmission of facts about planning. But the difficulties which students experience are not eased by the literature of planning theory. Much of the original literature in the subject is unnecessarily complicated and obscure, and so pretty impenetrable to the average student. Enthusiasm kindled in the opening week of a course on the subject can soon be drowned by the first reading of some 'classic text' in planning theory! There are some useful 'readers' in planning theory, such as Andreas Faludi's reader published in 1 973 (Faludi, 1 973a), and the more recent reader put together by Scott Campbell and Susan Fainstein (1996).1 However, what is still lacking is a book which 'tells the story' of how town planning theory has changed since the end of the Second World War. Again, I have tried in this book to meet that lack. In so doing I have tried to tell the (his)story in a clear and accessible way, without sacrificing analytical rigour. For in my view, a book on the history of ideas should not only describe the ideas under consideration but also draw the reader into assessing them. Whether or not I have succeeded in these aims I leave for others to judge. Before I begin I should say something about what I take 'town planning theory' to be (this itself has been a matter of debate amongst planning theorists since 1945). On this, it is worth saying to begin with that, if the practice of town planning is, literally, actually doing it, then everything that town planning students do at college is 'theory' about town planning of one kind or another, even when, for example, they are learning about the law that governs town planning. What is distinctive about the subject of 'planning theory' is