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Urban planning

Chapter · August 2018

DOI: 10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0386

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ABSTRACT
This entry synthesizes the official story of the history and evolution of modern urban planning with
an emphasis on the domain’s representative milestones. It begins by addressing distinctive urban
planning notions conceived primarily as urban design during the first half of the twentieth cen-
tury, and then moves on to highlight different waves of procedural planning approaches and their
respective critiques and reactions since the advent of the post-World War II era to date. The entry
mainly focuses on planning thought and practice as conceived in the Global North but also raises
awareness about emerging planning theorizations stemming from Global South contexts. Altogether,
each planning stage features ad hoc planning conceptions characterized by specific values, interests,
preferences, beliefs, and ways of implementation. This chronological account is thereby indicative of
❦ the polysemous character of urban planning, a product of its continuous reorientations as regards ❦
its ever-changing planning agendas, policies, and practices irrespective of geographical contexts and
sociopolitical realities and transitions.

KEYWORDS
planning history; planning theory; regional planning; spatial thinking; urban development; urban-
ization

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Urban Planning urban development as well as with making

choices about it. This approach demands a
MAGDALENA VICUÑA procedural management of complex realities
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile through persistent deliberation concerned
DANIEL GALLAND with the shaping of human settlements. At the
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway same time, urban planning is a recognized
profession wherein certain individuals hold
useful expertise to facilitate the process of
INTRODUCTION
collective action.
Urban planning is a variegated field char- Beyond the conception of urban planning
acterized by a series of ‘crosscutting generic as land-use management, the attempt to
themes’, inter alia the improvement of human define the domain is more complex seen
settlements in accordance with a diversity from the perspective of property rights and
of needs, a future orientation concerning land tenure. Krueckeberg (1995) states that
development pathways, open participatory property is the most central concept in urban
processes, and the integration of knowl- planning in the sense that it embraces a set
edge and collective action (Myers 1997). The of relationships between the owner of some-
diverse foci of urban planning not only condi- thing and everyone else’s claims to that same
tion the discipline’s identity but also challenge thing. Such an understanding of property
the domain with a wide array of dilemmas and highlights considerations of distributive jus-
tensions (Fischler 2012), which ultimately tice, use rights, and profit rights, which lie at
shape its public perception. Depending on the heart of planning questions.
❦ its geographical context, urban planning The flow of planning ideas and planning ❦
normally conveys manifold terms such as practices from the Global North to the Global
land-use planning, physical planning, com- South has been notorious throughout the
munity planning, urbanism, city and regional “modernization period” where imported
planning, or town and country planning. The instruments and practices such as land-use
semantic cornucopia associated with urban zoning, master planning, and spatial form
planning is reminiscent of its rich substance have been historically implanted by the USA
while its polysemous character challenges the as well as Western European countries in
discipline’s professional mandate. Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African
In a comprehensive account concern- countries (Healey and Upton 2010; Roy
ing the meaning of urban planning, Fischler 2009). In this sense, policy ideas have histori-
(2012, 108) defines the field as a social activity, cally flowed transnationally since the genesis
namely “the collective management of urban of modern urban planning and even more so
development.” This definition is intrinsically in recent decades whereby inter alia planning
related to Friedmann’s (1987) conception of instruments, ideas about planning processes,
planning as the application of knowledge to or concepts regarding urban form travel from
action, that is, the use of forethought to guide one place to another (Healey 2012).
action. The agenda of urban planning is then Planning as a technology towards achiev-
set to deal with looking into the future of ing modernization was thereby conceived as

Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies. Edited by Anthony Orum.
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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2 U R BA N PL A N N I NG

a universal means in catering to development While Chinese planners emphasized the

in its many forms, and has been oftentimes north–south axis, castle towns in Japan rep-
employed for hegemonic domination resented an all-powerful feudal aristocracy.
purposes or as an exploitive technology The Indian mandala schema combined the
in diverse Global South contexts (Roy 2010; square and the circle. In Latin America, Aztec
Watson 2009). With the increasing awareness planning reproduced the city as physical par-
about the complexity and contingency of allel to the imagined realm of the god of water.
urban development pathways over time, so Moreover, Incan planning divided cities into
has come a rejection of planning as a univer- lower and upper regions, while infrastructure
sal and, with it, the need to question and limit and public projects played an important role
its travelling capacity (Healey 2012). In this in reinforcing wealth and power.
respect, there is an increasing recognition During the Renaissance, some cities were
that the traveling of planning ideas as far as conceived and implemented as a whole by a
their selection, adaptation, or rejection are centrally planned layout, most often designed
concerned, is highly conditioned by politi- based on geometric diagrams that followed
cal processes that are targeted to benefit or rigid modes of centrality–radial convergence
undermine particular interests and social and axial alignment (Kostof 1991). In terms of
groups (Watson 2012). colonial city planning, this differed according
to the approaches of various colonial pow-
EARLY URBAN PLANNING ers and to differences between the contexts
where they were introduced. Colonial cities

❦ ❦
Before the emergence of modern plan- in Asia were laid out on the sites of existing
ning practice around the second half of the settlements, but indigenous villages and rural
nineteenth century, cities were traced by clusters around religious shrines or palaces
developers, engineers, surveyors, and gov- were judged insignificant by colonists for
ernment officials. Urban planning largely whom cultural value was synonymous with
referred to orthogonal street layouts devel- monumentality (Kostof 1991).
oped in accordance with the grid, which Relying on Roman principles of city plan-
was the frequent pattern for planned cities ning, the ordinances of the Laws of the Indies
throughout history. The grid can be under- are illustrative of post-medieval urban plan-
stood as the rational expression of civilized ning efforts. Originally issued in the sixteenth
life in a Cartesian sense (Kostof 1991). The century, the reasoning behind these laws was
Romans applied physical planning principles to ensure a basic quality of Spanish colonial
and portrayed planning as an instrument of cities by following a certain number of rules
power. Cities were settled upon the Cardo to attain efficiency. The laws were directed
Maximus (a road with a north–south ori- towards subjecting land to effective man-
entation) and the Decumanus Maximus agement via functional and well-protected
(east–west orientation) with a public plaza settlements thereby reflecting the values and
located at their intersection. In South and East culture promoted by the Spanish Crown
Asia, some Middle Age cities were planned at the time. These laws related inter alia
following cosmic diagrams. The axis and the to goals, settlement process, site selection
circle revealed single-centered control, as a criteria, administrative structure, urban ele-
statement of the political power of kings and ments, land subdivision, and public buildings
as a program of ritual purpose (Kostof 1991). (Mundigo and Crouch 1977).

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U R BA N PL A N N I NG 3

THE BIRTH OF MODERN URBAN political transformations (i.e., the French

PLANNING and American revolutions) whereby freedom
and equality represented key social values.
By the mid-nineteenth century, industri- Advances in science were critical in setting
alization and rapid rural–urban migration housing standards in relation to light, air,
had caused severe problems in large cities in sun, and ventilation, as well as access to open
Europe and North America, such as poverty spaces as a means of guaranteeing healthy
and peripheral neighborhoods’ segregation, life conditions for all through building and
overcrowding, and lack of open spaces and sanitary by-laws. In a markedly positivist
sanitary infrastructure. An account of the context, rationalism, science, and tech-
urban plight affecting industrial cities at nique would converge towards the quest for
the time alongside contemporary potential responses to the problems of the industrial
remedies is crudely reported by Engels’s 1845 city (Choay 1969).
account concerning the condition of the Sanitation and urban redevelopment were
working class in England (Engels 1975). approached by a handful of city extension and
The social question and hygiene concerns regeneration plans that aimed at improving
became public issues, which gave rise to the physical urban conditions during the second
sanitary and housing reform implemented by half of the nineteenth century. Two diver-
new housing laws and standards in the USA gent urban planning milestones comprised
(Veiller 1905). Exhaustive urban surveys Ildefons Cerdà’s plan for the expansion of
were conducted (such as the Booth social Barcelona (1859) and Baron Haussmann’s
survey in East London in 1887) to quan- plan for renovating Paris (1852–1870). In
❦ ❦
tify housing and urban demographics. New his “general theory of urbanization” Cerdà
technologies yielded innovation in transit, advanced a scientific account based on
electric, and telephone infrastructure, devel- hygienist and transit principles while claim-
opment of the sewer and tram systems, and ing the housing question in his city extension
street paving. The development of expropri- plan. This masterpiece is widely regarded
ation laws facilitated the implementation of as the genesis of modern urbanism. On the
new transit infrastructures as well as street other hand, for Haussmann, destruction
enlargement and extension. The turn of the and reconstruction were the means through
century evidenced the adoption of housing which bourgeois Paris would become a mod-
and town planning acts, and the initiation of ern city via the application of principles
university courses and conferences in urban of linearity and perspective in street lay-
planning. With the founding of the Royal out alongside monumentalization. Political
Town Planning Institute in the UK in 1914, power, technological innovation, municipal
the American City Planning Institute in 1917, proficiency, a favorable private banking, and
and the Town Planning Institute of Canada expropriation laws, made possible such a
in 1919, among others, a professional society radical urban intervention, which inspired
dealing with urban planning came to fruition. the renovation of several other European
Modern urban planning arose as a social cities as well as the City Beautiful movement
reform request, as a means to solve public in North America and urban modernization
problems in the city, as a need to mod- initiatives in Latin America.
ify urban development patterns while also Along with these urban transformation
searching for universal proper housing. and development initiatives, German munic-
It similarly emerged after an era of deep ipal administrations set forth zoning plans

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4 U R BA N PL A N N I NG

and urban codes as a means for managing States during the late nineteenth century
overcrowding, industrial growth, and coun- showcased how the suburb considerably
tryside protection. The principle of dividing impacted urban development in response to
urban land into residential, commercial, or contemporaneous technological, socioeco-
industrial categories with building heights, nomic, and ideological developments. Yet it
setbacks, or floor area ratios assigned to was not until Ebenezer Howard created the
each zone took form in the 1870s and 1880s Garden City Association (1899), later the
in Germany as building land-use plans or Town and Country Planning Association,
Bebauungspläne (Hirt 2007). From Germany, and published Garden Cities of Tomorrow
zoning was exported elsewhere and New in 1902, that the Garden City principle was
York’s comprehensive code of 1916 charac- spread throughout Europe, North America,
terizes the American adaptation to zoning, and, from there, elsewhere in the world.
which was primarily a private initiative to Consisting of new planned settlements with
guarantee urban investment, a social and surrounding agricultural belts linked to a
economic control mechanism made com- central city by rapid railway transit, Ebenezer
pulsory under the constitutional principle of Howard’s Garden City concept represented
police power. The International Congress of the promise of better dwelling, drawing
Modern Architecture (CIAM) (1928–1959) together the best features of both town and
would then contribute to consolidate and country. For Howard, garden cities comprised
expand zoning as a means for designing a a means towards a new socioeconomic order
more functional and orderly city. of collectively owned land. Being quite trans-
In many contexts, and along the path of formed in its adaptations, some particular
❦ modern urban planning practice, planning expressions of the Garden City principle are ❦
mechanisms have also been a vehicle for con- the Cité Industrielle (1904), the Lineal City
trol and exclusion. From Cerdà’s extension (1911), and the German Siedelungs (1920s).
plan to the development of zoning rules, The City Beautiful movement coexisted
density limits, and urban growth boundaries, with the Garden City, and saw its origins in
planning can also be understood as a means the boulevards and promenades of the great
and an instrument for land speculation European capitals as well as in the Chicago’s
and state control, benefiting certain interest World Fair of 1893. Daniel Burnham’s plan
groups over others. of Chicago of 1909 has remained its main
exponent. The City Beautiful has been recog-
EMBLEMATIC MILESTONES OF URBAN nized for its devotion to classic renaissance
PLANNING taste in the building arts, its commitment to
monumental city planning, and, to a lesser
The official story concerning the develop- extent, municipal art and civic improvement.
ment of modern urban planning during the The movement comprised a complex cultural
first half of the twentieth century is typically movement, the aesthetic expression of the
conceived in terms of the field’s emblem- turn-of-the century urban reform; a demand
atic milestones that contributed to lay its for beauty, civic order, and cleanliness, which
groundwork, that is the Garden City, the sought to revitalize local economies in North
City Beautiful, the City Scientific, and the America, expressing imperial dominance
Radiant City. and racial exclusiveness in the British empire
The rise of suburbia in England and the and imposing a vision of glory and power
planned suburban interventions in the United in totalitarian dictatorships’ capitals (Hall

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U R BA N PL A N N I NG 5

2014). Many aspects of the City Beautiful in 1952 and influenced a number of urban
remain today in zoning codes, subdivision plans from the 1930s through the 1950s, such
regulations, and local ordinances. Both the as Costa and Niemeyer’s plan for Brasilia. In
Garden City and the City Beautiful are illus- the implementation of this model, streets and
trative examples of the social reform concerns squares were substituted by speedways, trails,
associated with the genesis of urban planning. and large lawns, which aimed to separate
The City Scientific emerged in attention activities and city functions.
to the necessity for careful analyses of urban During the 1950s and 1960s, the design
conditions. Urban planning was portrayed principles and functionalist precepts of
in this context as an engineering-oriented the Radiant City – such as “tabula rasa,”
practice – a science that should undertake abstraction, rationalization, and functional
problems of convenience and comfort, public division – were applied to the planned
health, and efficiency. Amsterdam’s extension working-class housing and urban renewal
plan stands among the most representative programs in hundreds of cities, with results
scientific plans of the time. The City Scientific that “were at best questionable, at worst
later resulted in long-term comprehensive catastrophic” (Hall 2014, 238). Many of these
planning, which covered a broad range residential compounds were allocated to
of interrelated topics such as infrastruc- low-income families who were not able to
ture, transportation, parks and recreation, sustain them, largely because their lifestyle
schools, and zoning. One of the milestones was not compatible with that precise built
in comprehensive planning is the plan for environment. The mass scale of these pro-
the City of Vancouver prepared by Harland grams triggered fierce criticism, such as the
❦ Bartholomew & Associates in 1928. accounts of Lewis Mumford (1964) and Jane ❦
The Radiant City was Le Corbusier’s pro- Jacobs (1961), which were part of wider
posal to decongest city centers by increasing debates that emerged in reaction to govern-
densities and open green space while improv- ment interventions of the post-World War II
ing free circulation. In 1933, he founded the era whereby planning was being criticized
Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Mod- from different standpoints. Jane Jacobs’s
erne (CIAM), which revolutionized urban seminal work argued that planners did not
planning and established the dominance of understand cities given their emphasis on the
functionalism as an expression of the new built environment in detriment to the human
machine age. CIAM’s Charter of Athens then dimension of cities.
established the basic tenets of modernist Altogether, the emblematic milestones of
urban planning based on the differentiation urban planning spread to the Global South
of urban functions and the standardization of in several ways, namely colonialism and
urban units. Building high on a small part of imperialism, the education of planners, and
the total round area would require rebuilding the development of projects and government
centers by total demolition. The Radiant City counseling by European and North Ameri-
similarly proposed a social reform where can planners. Scientific and comprehensive
everyone would be collectivized, boosted by planning indeed represent one of the most
the power of the architect, centralized plan- important mainstreams in planning, particu-
ning, and an ordered hierarchical system. larly a form of deferential planning “devoted
Spread through the Charter of Athens in to maximizing the efficiency of whatever
1933, this ideal culminated in the construc- system or place is being planned” (Marcuse
tion of the first unité d’habitation in Marseille 2011, 644).

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6 U R BA N PL A N N I NG

Other emblematic milestones relate to the areas as well as the redevelopment of already
historical period when planning came to existing ones.
be conceived at different territorial scales,
namely the region and the neighborhood. RATIONAL COMPREHENSIVE
Regional planning emerged when greater PLANNING AND ITS CRITIQUE
attention was paid to planning cities in unison
with their hinterlands and beyond. The spread Rational comprehensive planning was a
of electricity as well as the mass production widely subscribed planning approach during
of the automobile and its concomitant use the post-World War II era that emerged in
meant greater locational freedom and thereby reaction to the conception of urban planning
increasing urban sprawl and decentralization. as physical design (e.g., Unwin, Le Cor-
Among other issues, these spatial and techno- busier). The rational comprehensive model
logical shifts brought along an environmental attempted to redefine the role of planning
problematic that demanded unprecedented by virtue of its attributes directed towards
solutions directed towards providing ordered correcting market failures. At the same time,
functional arrangements at the scale of urban the rational planning process was conceived
regions facing rapid population growth and as a generic planning model to define and sys-
increasing urban sprawl, product of rising tematize core areas of knowledge in planning.
standards of living and personal mobility Advanced by the Chicago School during the
(Glasson 1974). At the same time, regional 1950s, such a process view of planning drew
planning emerged in contexts of escalating from rational choice theory, and resulted

❦ ❦
sociospatial disparities between regions, in a model that involved the identification
mainly within European post-World War II of problems, the consideration of alterna-
welfare states. In confronting such inequal- tives, the evaluation of the consequences
ities, the rationale of regional planning was that would follow the selection of each alter-
to perform as a spatial framework to tackle native, implementation and monitoring,
uneven development with the aim of lessen- and, finally, the replication of the process.
ing major income imbalances among regions Meyerson and Banfield’s emblematic study of
(Friedmann 1963). Chicago’s Housing Authority in 1955 was key
A number of key regional planning pro- in portraying planning as a rational, scientific
posals put forward by the Regional Planning discipline to enable complex problem-solving
Association of America (RPAA) emerged as in the public sphere.
alternatives to the contemporary industrial The rational dimension of planning
city. The New Towns, the town-less high- allegedly reinforced the discipline with a
way, and the highway-less town, as well as “scientific” and “objective” methodological
economic and natural-resources planning arsenal as it came to be characterized by
at the regional scale stood among the key its formal rationality whereby the means
choices. Parallel to the rise of regional plan- were clearly separated from the ends (i.e.,
ning, the idea of the neighborhood unit also instrumental vis-à-vis substantial rationality)
represented innovative thinking as regards (Faludi 1973). This objective view of knowl-
the spatial organization of residential areas edge thereby stressed the procedural and syn-
in the automobile age. Advanced by Perry optic view of planning, where planning could
in 1929, the neighborhood unit established be applied to any situation where rational pro-
the basis for the planning of new residential cedures for decision-making were deemed

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U R BA N PL A N N I NG 7

appropriate. Theoretical and methodological ALTERNATIVE DEMOCRATIC MODELS

work specifying and spreading the rational OF PLANNING
comprehensive model continues to date
despite the several waves of criticism that During the late 1960s and throughout the
arose almost immediately after its concep- 1970s, alternative democratic models of
tion. Moreover, systems theory still has sway planning confronted the rational comprehen-
over contemporary planning at different sive and land-use planning tradition, which
scales through its emphasis on modelling. was judged as overly elitist, centralized, and
Current planning techniques such as retail change averse. The fading of an apparent
and traffic impact analyses as well as environ- agreement about the significance of the pub-
mental impact assessments largely build upon lic interest stood at the core of advocacy,
the systems approach. Like rational compre- equity, transactive, participatory, and radical
hensive planning, the systems approach is forms of planning, whose values comprised
concerned with the generation and evaluation ideals that not only challenged the status quo
of alternatives prior to making choices. but also the ethics of professional planning
Incremental planning emerged as a critique practice at the time. An agitated political
of the rational planning model. Lindblom context moved by quite radical convictions
(1959) suggested that rational planning was a key condition to the upsurge of these
was largely unattainable and that it disre- alternative models.
garded political realities. Incrementalism Paul Davidoff ’s early classic in the plan-
thus challenged the viability of complex ning literature concerning alternatives to
decision-making and attempted to advocate the rational comprehensive model emerged
❦ ❦
more realistic short-term goals with only few at a time when social activism and protest
alternatives considered. Incremental plan- were blossoming in the USA as well as
ning is considerably aligned with a pragmatic other Western countries. Davidoff stated
stance to policy analysis. Another famous that planning could not be practiced from
critique on rational comprehensive planning a position of value neutrality and thereby
was put forward by Rittel and Webber (1973) raised the critical question of how planning
who challenged some of the existing assump- could serve as an instrument of distributive
tions, including the idea that long-range justice. Davidoff conceived planning to be
planning actually solved problems. Their key in the debate about wealth redistribution,
main criticism thus stressed that some of the which implied that planners should be able to
key issues that planners were called upon to engage in political processes as advocates of
address had no ultimate solutions. Other crit- the interests of governments, organizations
ics such as Wildavsky (1973) contended that or individuals concerned with community
the conception of planning was overwhelmed development policies, especially those repre-
by several self-contradictory requirements for senting the interests of low-income families.
planning to be ultimately fulfilled. He argued The pluralistic and advocacy approach called
that planners were being deeply challenged for an inclusive definition of planning that
by the allegedly “comprehensive” scope of largely overcome the spatial factors of the
their discipline where planning was equated urban problem, by encompassing people’s
to too many concepts such as rationality, practices and their political, social, cultural,
power, causation, process, or adaptation. If and economic institutions (Davidoff 1965).
planning was at risk of being everything, was Closely associated with advocacy planning,
there any actual “value added by planning”? equity planning emerged from planning

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8 U R BA N PL A N N I NG

practice as a way of addressing justice issues Schön (1983) coined the concept of reflec-
resulting from the abusive character of urban tive planning based on an a now classical
development processes and the incompe- account stating that a response to the crisis of
tence of local politics to deal with them. confidence in professional knowledge was to
Krumholz (1982) stated that, as a profession, move away from technical rationality towards
planning had been too timid and, coincid- reflection in action. This implied that the evo-
ing with Davidoff, remarked that pursuit lution of the planner’s role should be under-
of equity objectives required a focus on the stood as a global conversation between the
decision-making process. The political phi- profession and its context. The urban planner
losophy sustaining equity planning is within could then place himself as an intermediary
democratic socialism, since it combines the within the private and the public sector, while
socialist’s belief in equality with the demo- his work required a negotiation with devel-
crat’s faith in government by the people. In a opers without infringing public authority, an
similar vein, Sherry Arnstein (1969) tackled often conflicting double objective.
the debate over citizen participation and Altogether, the genesis and reproduction
control, which she stated had been waged of increasingly participatory experiences and
largely in terms of exacerbated rhetoric and alternative planners’ roles contributed to the
misleading euphemisms, to encourage a more development of citizens’ agency in relation
enlightened dialogue. to planning and decision-making processes,
John Friedmann’s transactive planning identity strengthening, and civic education.
approach suggested a means to increase and
improve collaboration, communication, and
❦ ❦
interaction between experts and the public PLANNING DURING THE LATE
(Friedmann and Hudson 1974). Accordingly, TWENTIETH CENTURY
Friedmann’s social learning paradigm in
planning implies frequent face-to-face trans- The 1980s witnessed continued government
actions that require a dialogue. To be effective, support of neoliberal economic initiatives
“change agents” must develop a transactive that replaced welfarist policy objectives
relation with their clients, directed to mutual with the promotion of distinct development
learning. Transactive planning arose under projects, such as efforts aimed at revitalizing
the paradigm of organizational development rundown areas of cities and city-regions.
emphasizing interpersonal informal transac- The transition from welfarist to neolib-
tions, through a dialogue between technical eral economic regimes (Jessop 2002), and
and personal knowledge, which blend in a particularly from land-use and physical plan-
process of mutual learning (Friedmann 1987). ning to strategic spatial planning, evidently
Grabow and Heskin’s (1973) proposal of influenced the conceptions of contempo-
radical planning was grounded on a decen- rary urban planning. In Western Europe,
tralized communal society and an ecological the planning domain significantly moved
ethic based on spontaneity and experimen- away from its distinctively regulatory scope
tation. Radical planning aims at the idea of towards adopting more strategic roles. Spatial
involving as many people as possible in the plans prepared at different levels of planning
decision-making process, and the planner administration had previously centered on
hence becomes a radical agent of change, positivist ‘Euclidean’ concepts, that is, central
whose job is to facilitate social experimenta- place hierarchies, urban settlement patterns,
tion by the people. Later in the 1980s, Donald physical proximity, or commuting patterns

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U R BA N PL A N N I NG 9

between cities, which conceived space as to improve their position in the global city
a primary social ordering principle. These network (evidenced by city rankings and
plans were challenged by the emergence of urban indicators).
relational concepts endorsed by the spa- Parallel to the above planning reorien-
tial relations of territories through strategic tations, communicative planning emerged
spatial planning “episodes” (Healey 2007). during the 1990s as a reaction to instrumental
This turn became known as “the revival of rationality or modernist rationalism, namely
strategic spatial planning” (Salet and Faludi the underlying logic associated with the
2000) with a strategic emphasis on innovative rational comprehensive paradigm. As argued
place-making activities based on relational by Healey (1996), communicative planning is
processes for decision making (Healey 2007). fundamentally shaped by the microdynamics
Since then, this reorientation towards place of planning processes, that is, by the actual
qualities has entailed the promotion of com- experience of planners in practice. Jürgen
petitive cities and city-regions via planning Habermas’s philosophy of communicative
policies and practices prioritizing the eco- action constitutes the groundwork upon
nomic positioning of cities in macroregional which communicationalists developed their
and even global contexts. accounts regarding planning as a commu-
City branding and urban regeneration are nicative enterprise. This has allowed planning
also linked to the declining power of the scholars to theorize upon processes and prac-
welfare state and to the rise of urban compet- tices of public deliberation, collaborative and
itiveness for external investment, qualified network governance, consensus building, and
professionals, and international events. Both local, democratic decision-making.
❦ comprise planning strategies of city promo- ❦
tion and a response of local and national
governments to cope with the ascending CONTEMPORARY URBAN PLANNING
autonomy achieved by mobile financial cap- MANIFESTATIONS
itals. On the one hand, city branding has
been operationalized through master plans Over one-and-a-half centuries after its birth
promoting the upsurge of specific city areas as a discipline and as a profession, contem-
coupled with “emblematic” urban projects porary urban planning can be understood
that function as the architectonic icons that as continually evolving institutional mosaic
highlight city image while aiming at reor- of an array of conceptions to collectively
ganizing the physical and economic urban manage urban development. As the market
fabric through the reconversion of spaces that economy and the consolidation of a decen-
result from the cessation of activity. At the tralized, neutral, and noninterventionist state
same time, city branding has been subject of prevail in Western capitalist societies, the
wide criticism given the resulting disparity path towards an urban governance epoch
of asset accumulation within cities and the has entailed deep-rooted consequences for
neoliberal seizure of urbanity as a means urban development and planning. Cities have
to guide demand and surplus production. assumed unprecedented planetary impor-
On the other hand, urban regeneration has tance, reaching population and expansion
increasingly emphasized territorial market- levels with estimated growth tendencies over
ing and city image in terms of the appeal of the next decades. Concentrations of poverty
places to live, work, or invest by strength- and unemployment, infrastructure bottle-
ening their competitive advantages in order necks, high levels of pollution, and difficulties

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10 U R BA N PL A N N I NG

in the provision of key services and response quantitative methods and qualitative research
to natural disasters, represent urban planning in planning and urban design. Short distances
claims that get even more challenged in less between city functions, integration and ver-
developed regions. satility of functions, safe and attractive public
Although the trend towards urban devel- spaces, contact between private and public
opment as profit motive has always been space, or density balance, are some principles
present in the evolution of cities, the steady that claim to ensure the spatial quality of
proliferation of the world’s economic pro- public space.
cesses of liberalization and financialization However, the compact city has been chal-
have evidently led to its culmination. As lenged by alternative models that inter alia
a product of the free mobility of financial promote urban expansion at sustainable
capitals, investors have drawn on incen- densities with well-connected and newly
tives – such as a budgetary solvency, respect equipped urban areas. One such alternative
to property rights, low taxes or a flexible labor model is the transit-oriented development,
market – to actively invest in real estate. In generally defined as mixed-use develop-
rapidly urbanizing countries, urban sprawl ment located within a 10-minute walk (or a
and hyperdensification are interrelated phe- 5-mile radius) from a light rail, heavy rail,
nomena. Under neoliberal conditions, the or commuter rail station. It also includes
character of urban planning has considerably development at higher densities along bus
diversified to the extent that the domain rapid transit corridors to take advantage of
reveals an evident bipolarity in terms of its transit proximity, as well as planning and
ends, that is, a defense of the common good design elements that encourage walkability
❦ vis-à-vis a profit motive. The implementa- and create pedestrian-friendly connections ❦
tion of urban planning in the neoliberal city to the surrounding community. The amalga-
is largely dependent on the prevalence of mation of compact city and transit-oriented
land and building markets and thereby on development ideas has inspired the principles
developers and private investors. This situa- of new urbanism, which have reinvigorated
tion evidently breeds collective sociospatial planning debates at a full range of scales
consequences as a result of uncoordinated (from single buildings to neighborhoods,
individual decisions. cities, and regions), particularly in the USA.
Also under the neoliberal paradigm, the Another influential idea over the past
compact city has emerged as the prevailing two decades has been the city-region pol-
urban planning discourse guiding urban icy discourse, which has been promoted by
development, particularly in Europe. The government agencies in Western Europe.
discourse is premised on the containment of The policy idea has emerged as an attempt
urban sprawl through the provision of high to reconfigure subnational territorialities
densities alongside efficient public transport while withdrawing from vertical welfare
and a concentration of socially sustainable state organization. It also responds to the
mixed uses that reduces the need to travel awareness of the complexity and diversity
while encouraging social interaction. To of contemporary sociospatial relations. The
recover or “produce urbanity,” compact city city-region displays two fundamental dimen-
strategies resort to the 1960s discourses in sions: on the one hand, it can be understood
favor of physical proximity as an inherent as an organizing device for urban governance
condition of good cities while seeking to that responds to the idea that “functional”
strengthen the public domain and to balance urban realities should be aligned with urban

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U R BA N PL A N N I NG 11

development planning areas and, on the basis of more efficient and equitable cities. In
other, as a spatial concept that emphasizes this respect, planning policies are similarly
place dynamics and gives legitimacy to urban challenged to incorporate this complexity
policy agendas and programs. It thus suggests while urban upgrading and legalization of
both an institutional arena and a spatial informal property systems comprise the
focus and emphasizes cities in competition main responses from national governments
with each other, which fosters the promotion in diverse Global South settings.
of endogenous economic development and Furthermore, the rise of discourses that
enables better coordination and delivery of incorporate new geographies, actors, and
services and infrastructures. demands in urban planning have been pro-
moted by international organizations as part
THE RISE OF GLOBAL SOUTH of an international agenda designed to influ-
PLANNING APPROACHES ence planning in the Global South. As such,
an array of programs has been introduced,
From a Global South perspective, the notion such as Local Agenda 21, Sustainable and
of insurgent planning has been recently Emerging Cities Initiative, Healthy Cities,
mobilized as a form of radical planning, and Safer Cities, among others. The extent to
which reacts “to neoliberal specifics of dom- which such initiatives might influence plan-
inance through inclusion” (Miraftab 2009, ning priorities within these geographies will
32). Insurgent planning attempts to question evidently depend on possibilities to enhance
the role of citizen participation in neoliberal local capacities and political leaderships.

❦ ❦
contexts. The work of Roy (2005) on urban
informality, of Rolnik (2013) on the right to CLOSING REMARKS
housing, and of Miraftab (2009) on citizen-
ship insurgency have become increasingly The meaning of urban planning has been
relevant in portraying a more inclusive and historically subjected to manifold concep-
counter-hegemonic understanding of urban tions and interpretations within the multiple
planning in the twenty-first century. These geographical contexts where it has been prac-
emergent understandings have resulted in ticed. Urban planning is a highly diversified
alternative planning actions promoted as a field characterized by a series of crosscutting
complement or substitute for government generic themes and foci that not only condi-
sponsored planning. tion the discipline’s identity but also challenge
Urban informality and slum development it with a wide array of dilemmas and tensions.
on rapidly growing cities comprise one of the The semantic cornucopia associated with this
key planning challenges in the twenty-first domain is reminiscent of its rich substance
century. Urban informality has been the while its polysemous character challenges
principal means for impoverished urban the discipline’s professional mandate. In the
residents to access housing and land through current era of urban migrations, planetary
informal land and housing markets. The urbanization, globalized neoliberalism, and
formal–informal housing dichotomy implies financialization, urban planning in both the
the existence of different degrees of informal- Global North and South is ever increasingly
ity based on diverse tenure systems denoting challenged by spatial problems holding a
diverse degrees of security. Planners face the “wicked” character, and occurring amid often
challenge of using these typologies on the conflicting political agendas.

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eurs0240
eurs0261 Planning; Sprawl; Urban Governance; Urban gent: Some Reflections on the Transnational
eurs0318 Policies; Urban Sustainability; Urban Studies; Flow of Planning Ideas and Practices.” Planning
eurs0366
eurs0387 Place-Making; Urbanism Theory, 11(2): 188–207.
eurs0399 Healey, P., and R. Upton, eds. 2010. Crossing Bor-
eurs0434
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of Strategic Spatial Planning. Amsterdam: in Urban Theory. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
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