Journal of Planning History current issue

Planning and Ideology

Guttenberg, A. Z. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:19:38 PDT

This article identifies some of the major themes or ideologies that dominate American planning as they are reflected in the variable meanings of some of its key terms, especially, the word "planning," itself. It avers that these ideologies refer not only to the planning of cities and regions, but to the nation as a whole. It traces their origins to the societal crises such as culture conflict, war, and depression that have shaken American society in the course of the last century, or to periods of recovery from such crises. It shows how they have succeeded each other in time, so as to constitute more or less distinct eras of planning thought and practice. It also notes how the same ideologies confront each other in space resulting in severe land-use conflicts, especially at the edges of metropolitan areas. In the light of these ideologies, the article raises questions about the nature and future of the contemporary American planning profession.

Whither the Region? Periods and Periodicity in Planning History

Hise, G. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:19:38 PDT

The principal argument of this article is that for a century and more the region has been a significant scale for planning practice, for the provision of basic services, and more recently for citizen activism. Yet within planning history, attention to regions and regionalism has waxed and waned. When practitioners, historians, and social scientists have considered regions retrospectively, they have tended to view events and endeavors as episodic; they have assigned the region to particular moments or movements (a City Beautiful, the New Deal, a "new regionalism"), to discrete eras or decades (ecological regionalism, regional science), and to particular localities. Often those who study practice have seen regions when those they write about organized their efforts, framed their plans, implemented policies, and constituted these explicitly as regional in scale and scope. Because the attention of those who write planning history has been more periodic than comprehensive, scholars and practitioners who seek to understand the development over time of region as a concept, an ideal, and a space of analysis and intervention have turned to geography and allied disciplines for theory and empirics.

Marginal Lands and Suburban Nature: Open Space Planning and the Case of the 1893 Boston Metropolitan Parks Plan

Moga, S. T. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:19:38 PDT

Soon after publication, the 1893 Boston Metropolitan Parks Report came to be regarded as a model plan for American cities. Little known to the public today, it is frequently cited by landscape and planning historians as a testament to the vision of "pioneer" landscape architect Charles Eliot and metropolitan planning advocate Sylvester Baxter. However, planning historians have overlooked key aspects of the plan and omitted significant details about the authors’ redevelopment and planning goals. I argue that Eliot and Baxter viewed open space planning as a means of combating slums and establishing a regionwide land use template for future growth.

Review Essay: Familiar Competitors on a New Playing Field: Sports Venues and Urban Development in Contemporary America: LARRY BENNETT and COSTAS SPIROU. It's Hardly Sportin': Stadiums, Neighborhoods, and the New Chicago. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003. KEVIN J. DELANEY and RICK ECKSTEIN. Public Dollars, Private Stadiums: The Battle over Building Sports Stadiums. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003. TIMOTHY JON CURRY, KENT SCHWIRIAN, and RACHEL WOLDOFF. High Stakes: Big Time Sports and Downtown Redevelopment. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2004

McCarthy, J. M. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:19:38 PDT