For nearly fifty years John Friedmann's writings have not just led the academic study of the discipline, but have given shape and direction to the planning profession itself.
Covering transactive planning, radical planning, the concept of the Good City, civil society, rethinking poverty and the diversity of planning cultures, this collection of Friedmann's most important and influential essays tells a coherent and compelling story about how the evolution of thinking about planning over several decades has helped to shape its practice.
With each essay given a new introduction to establish its context and importance, this is an ideal text for the study of planning theory and history.
Foreword. Introduction 1. The Transactive Style of Planning (1973) 2. The Epistemology of Social Practice: A Critique of Objective Knowledge (1978) 3. Preface to The Good Society (1979) 4. The Mediations of Radical Planning (1987) 5. Rethinking Poverty: The Dis/Empowerment Model (1992) 6. The Rise of Civil Society (1998) 7. Planning Theory Revisited (1998) 8. The Good City: In Defense of Utopian Thinking (2000) 9. The Many Cultures of Planning (2005) 10. The Uses of Planning Theory: A Bibliographic Essay (2008) Epilogue: Citizen Planners in an Era of Limits
Biography
John Friedmann is Professor Emeritus in the School of Public Affairs at UCLA and an Honorary Professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia. Internationally recognized for his path-breaking work on regional development and planning, he holds honorary doctorates from the University of Dortmund and the Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. In 2006 he received the first UN-Habitat Lecture Award for lifetime achievement.
