In this paper I argue that the debate about urban and regional planning is polarised into two competing ‘discourses’ of town planning and political economy. I assert that the language and concepts of town planning continue to take precedence in both the field of practice and in teaching and research and that this is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs. Town planners relegate urban and regional political economy to the periphery and place town planning at the centre. This is a conservative situation in that most town planning education places great emphasis on plans and very little on ‘how cities and regions work’. I recommend the abandonment of ‘planning’ education in favour of spatial political economy which might sit easiest in human geography.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BadcockB, 1993, “The urban programme as an instrument of crisis management in Australia”Urban Policy and Research11(2) 72–80
2.
CherryG, 1980Shaping an Urban World (Mansell, London)
3.
DearM, 1985, “Postmodernism and planning”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space4367–384
4.
DearM, 1989, “Survey 16: Privatization and the rhetoric of planning practice”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space7449–462
5.
EcclesDHamnettSHuxleyMMcLoughlinB, 1990, “Professionalism and academia; the recognition of town planning courses”Australian Planner28(4) 37–43
6.
FoleyD J, 1961, “British town planning: One ideology or three?”British Journal of Sociology11211–231; reprinted 1973 in A Reader in Planning Theory Ed. FaludiA (Pergamon, Oxford) pp 69–93
7.
GottdienerM, 1985The Social Production of Space (University of Texas Press, Austin, TX)
8.
Government of Victoria, 1992A Place to Live: Shaping Victoria's Future (Government Printer, Melbourne)
9.
HollandS, 1976The Regional Problem (Macmillan Education, Basingstoke, Hants)
10.
House of Representatives, 1992Patterns of Urban Settlement: Consolidating the Future? (AGPS, Canberra)
11.
HuxleyMMcLoughlinJ B, 1985, “The New Urban Studies literature: A review with special reference to Australia”Progress in Planning24(3) 161–246
12.
JohnstonR J, 1989Environmental Problems: Nature, Economy and State (Belhaven, London)
13.
JohnstonR, 1991A Question of Place: Exploring the Practice of Human Geography (Basil Blackwell, Oxford)
14.
LeeD BJr, 1973, “A requiem for large-scale models”Journal of the American Institute of Planners39(3) 163–178
15.
LoganT, 1986, “A critical examination of Melbourne's District Centre policy”Urban Policy and Research4(2) 2–14
16.
McLoughlinJ B, 1983, “Planning research and education in Australia”Urban Policy and Research1(4) 16–21
17.
McLoughlinJ B, 1986, “Urban planning in Australia”, in Urban Planning in Australia Eds McLoughlinJ BHuxleyM (Longman Cheshire, Melbourne) chapter 1
18.
McLoughlinJ B, 1991, “Urban consolidation and urban sprawl: A question of density”Urban Policy and Research9(3) 148–156
19.
McLoughlinJ B, 1992Shaping Melbourne's Future? Town Planning, the State and Civil Society (Cambridge University Press, Melbourne)
20.
MHLG, 1954The Density of Residential AreasMinistry of Housing and Local Government (HMSO, London)
21.
MillersonG, 1964The Qualifying Associations (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London)
22.
ReadeE, 1987British Town and Country Planning (Open University Press, Milton Keynes)
23.
SandercockL, 1983, “Urban studies in Australia: Producing planners or educating urbanists?”, in Melbourne Studies in Education 1982 Ed. Murray-SmithS (University of Melbourne Press, Melbourne)
24.
ScottA J, 1980The Urban Land Nexus and the State (Pion, London)
25.
ScottA JRoweisS T, 1977, “Urban planning in theory and practice: A re-appraisal”Environment and Planning A91097–1119
26.
SojaE, 1989Postmodern Geographies: The Re-assertion of Space in Critical Social Theory (Verso, London)
27.
StilwellF, 1992Understanding Cities and Regions: Spatial Political Economy (Pluto Press, Leichhardt, Sydney)
28.
ThompsonR, 1990, “Believing in planning”, Presidential Statement The Planner76(2) 11–12
29.
WildavskyA, 1973, “If planning is everthing, maybe it's nothing”Policy Sciences4127–153
