About the Book

Planning Theory expresses a sound unease about the direction taken by the current analysis and criticism of planning experiences, both in the field of economics and in urban and regional planning.

Instead of seriously revising the technical and scientific shortcomings marking the various problems encountered in the planning experience in both fields, academic debates and reflection have instead led to a kind of political interpretation. On the basis of the hopelessness of improving the governance of managerial and political planning initiatives, planning theory has been reduced to a generic sociological debate on planning itself; a debate that freezes planning as a permanently declining engagement.

To oppose this, the present book aims to identify the essential guidelines of a re-launch of planning processes and techniques, configuring a kind of neo-discipline, called ‘planology’ by the author, which builds upon a multi-disciplinary integration (never seen and experimented with until now) of economic, environmental, and sociological approaches, a crucial element missing in previous unsuccessful planning attempts.

Contents

PlanningTheory: Reconstruction or Requiem?

In Search of Integration:The Past Negative Experience

Towards a New Unified Discipline of Planning

The First Routes of the New Discipline

Some Integrative Topics of the New Planning Discipline

Planning Science: Basic Postulates and Logical Framework for Reference

The Future of National Planning Systems: Some New Steps

Planning and Plan Evaluation: SomeWell-Known and Often Neglected Pitfalls

Conclusions

About the Author / Editor

Professor of Planning (in several Italian Universities, and lastly at the Postgraduate School of Public Administration, Rome; President of the Planning Studies Centre, Rome).

He has been consultant of many international institutions (UNDP, UNESCO, UN-ECE, UNEP, OECD, European Union, Council of Europe and others) and of the Italian Government.

Author of some books in economics and planning, which have had international audience within the scientific community, like The Associative Economy (Macmillan, 2000), The Ecological City (Ashgate, 1997), Economy and Ecology (co-ed., Kluwer, 1992), and others.