New Directions in Planning Theory

Critical Planning Futures brings together an international range of voices from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to explore new directions in planning theory, interrogate planning’s orthodoxy, and push the boundaries of contemporary theory using ideas both from within planning and beyond.

Planning lies at the heart of successful and sustainable places, yet planning scholarship often appears stuck in routinised patterns of thought. Critical Planning Futures brings together an international range of voices from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to explore new directions in planning theory, interrogate planning’s orthodoxy, and push the boundaries of contemporary theory using ideas both from within planning and beyond. Contributors draw on examples from across the globe, considering the applicability of concepts and theories across traditional divides. In this way, Critical Planning Futures continues planning’s rich tradition of borrowing ideas from elsewhere and using those ideas to shine a light back onto well-rehearsed theoretical debates to set out new ways forward for planning in the twenty-first century. This book will be a vital resource for planning specialists, though the breadth of ideas will be of interest to academics and researchers in a wide range of disciplines, including urban studies, geography, political science, and sociology.