Centre or Periphery? Town Planning and Spatial Political Economy
- 24 July 1994
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
- Vol. 26 (7), 1111-1122
- https://doi.org/10.1068/a261111
Abstract
In this paper I argue that the debate about urban and regional planning is polarised into two competing ‘discourses’ of town planning and political economy. I assert that the language and concepts of town planning continue to take precedence in both the field of practice and in teaching and research and that this is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs. Town planners relegate urban and regional political economy to the periphery and place town planning at the centre. This is a conservative situation in that most town planning education places great emphasis on plans and very little on ‘how cities and regions work’. I recommend the abandonment of ‘planning’ education in favour of spatial political economy which might sit easiest in human geography.Keywords
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