Cities draw from many voices, many rationalities. However, planners often make an effort to separate dissimilar uses from each other and even neglect plural rationalities. Their plans work like condoms, designed to defend us against being raped by the cacophonous abundance of the metropolis. The metaphor, borrowed from Georg Simmel (1903), encourages planners to use monorationality as a tool for planning. But is diversity, even if cacophonous, not also a vital sign of urbanity? Based upon Mary Douglas's cultural theory, the article aims to demonstrate how planners can profit from exploring the frontiers of polyrationality.
Ball, A. (2000) American Beauty. London: FilmFour Books.
2.
Davy, B. (1997) Essential Injustice: When Legal Institutions Cannot Resolve Environmental and Land Use Disputes. Wien: Springer.
3.
Davy, B. (2004) Die Neunte Stadt. Wilde Grenzen und Städteregion Ruhr 2030. Wuppertal: Müller + Busmann.
4.
Douglas, M. (1966[1992]) Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge.
5.
Douglas, M. (1978) Implicit Meanings: Essays in Anthropology. London: Routledge.
6.
Douglas, M. (1992) Risk and Blame: Essays in Cultural Theory. London: Routledge.
7.
Douglas, M. (2005) `Grid and Group, New Developments', presentation at the Workshop on Complexity and Cultural Theory in Honour of Michael Thompson, held at the London School of Economics, 27 June 2005, available online at: [www.psych.lse.ac.uk/complexity/workshops/MaryDouglas.pdf ].
8.
Douglas, M. and Wildavsky, A. (1983) Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technological and Environmental Dangers. Berkeley: University of California Press.
9.
Ellis, R.J. and Thompson, M. (eds) (1997) Culture Matters: Essays in Honor of Aaron Wildavsky. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
10.
Frank, A.I. (2007) `Benjamin Davy, Die Neunte Stadt, Book Review', Planning Theory6(1): 95-100.
11.
Frug, G. (1999) City Making: Building Communities without Building Walls. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
12.
Gregory, D. (1994) `Spatiality', in R.J. Johnston, D. Gregory, G. Pratt and M. Watts (eds) The Dictionary of Human Geography, 4th edn. Oxford: Blackwell .
13.
Harvey, D. (1973) Social Justice and the City. Oxford: Blackwell.
14.
Hillier, J. (2007) Stretching Beyond the Horizon: A Multiplanar Theory of Spatial Planning and Governance. Aldershot: Ashgate.
15.
Light, A. and Smith, J.M. (eds) (1998) The Production of Public Space. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
16.
Mamadouh, V. (1999) `Grid-group Cultural Theory: An Introduction', GeoJournal47: 395-409.
17.
Richie, A. (1999) Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin. London: HarperCollins.
18.
Schlör, J. and Hohmuth, J. (2005) Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas [Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe]. München: Prestel.
19.
Schwarz, M. and Thompson, M. (1990) Divided We Stand: Redefining Politics, Technology and Social Choice. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Simmel, G. (1903) `Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben', in T. Petermann (ed.) Die Groβstadt. Vorträge und Aufsätze zur Städteausstellung. Jahrbuch der Gehe-Stiftung zu Dresden, vol. 9, pp. 185-206. Dresden : Gehe-Stiftung zu Dresden.
22.
Simmel, G. (1950) `The Metropolis and Mental Life', in K.H. Wolff (ed.) The Sociology of Georg Simmel, pp. 409-24. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
23.
Soja, E. (1989) Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London: Verso.
24.
Thompson, M., Ellis, R. and Wildavsky, A. (1990) Cultural Theory. Boulder, CO : Westview Press.
25.
Thompson, M.,Grenstad, G. and Selle, P. (eds) ( 1999) Cultural Theory as Political Science. London: Routledge.
26.
van Houtum, H., Kramsch, O. and Zierhofer, W. (eds) ( 2005) B/ordering Space. Aldershot: Ashgate.
