The Urban Planning Imagination

A Critical International Introduction

By: Nicholas A. Phelps

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Paperback | 30 April 2021

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Paperback
248 Pages

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27.5 x 16.9 x 5.2

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Urban planning is not just about applying a suite of systematic principles or plotting out pragmatic designs to satisfy the briefs of private developers or public bodies. Planning is also an activity of imagination, with a stock of wisdom and an array of useful methods for making decisions and getting things done.

This critical introduction uncovers and celebrates this imagination and its creative potential. Nicholas A. Phelps explores the key themes and driving questions in the circulation of planning ideas and methods over time and across spaces, identifying the contrasts and commonalities between urban planning systems and cultures. He argues that the tools for inclusive urban planning are today, more than ever, not solely restricted to the hands of planning bodies, but are distributed across citizens, a variety of organizations (what Phelps calls ‘clubs’) and states. As a result, the book sets the ground for the new arrangements between these groups and actors which will be central to the future of urban planning.

By unsettling standard accounts, this book compels us towards more critical and creative thinking to ensure that the imagination, wisdom and methods of urban planning are mobilized towards achieving the aspiration of shaping better places.

Industry Reviews

"With his book, Nicholas A. Phelps has presented a refreshingly liberating view of urban planning that avoids the greatest pitfalls of localism."
Soziopolis?

"A wise and stimulating book."
Zef Hemel, Rooilijn

"A stock of wisdom and a series of useful methods [...] with the conviction that new and more supportive collaborations are central to the future of urban planning."
TOPSCAPE

"The Urban Planning Imagination goes beyond planning as reactive and regulative profession and revisits planning’s histories and geographies. This mind-opening and path-breaking book deploys a whole set of new vocabularies – imagination, substance, wisdom, methods, comparison, exchanges – to depict an exciting, forward-looking, progressive vision of planning. Rethinking fundamental aspects of planning, Nicholas A. Phelps presents a critical reading of diverse international practices and provides a profound inspiration to a new generation of planners."
Fulong Wu, UCL Bartlett School of Planning

"The growing complexity of society, cities and planning requires the original insights and analysis that Nicholas A. Phelps provides. Building on the diversity of planning practices, Phelps provides a framework that allows us to move forward to tackle the challenges of cities and city planning. Highly recommended."
Phil Allmendinger, University of Cambridge

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