Innovation and Knowledge Exchange in the History of Planning: an Approach from an European Perspective

Abstract

Conventionally planning history is told in terms of innovations and innovators Í€“ the Í€˜bright ideasÍ€™ of planning and those who first thought of them and were able to put them into practice. This tribune aims to broaden this approach including the question of knowledge circulation. In other words how the new thinking and experience about planning spread around between people and places and across national boundaries. Considering that innovation itself is intimately associated with this knowledge circulation, it seems unlikely that modern urban planning could ever have emerged as a distinct discipline and practice without this wider circulation of knowledge.

This lecture will review innovation and knowledge circulation in planning history within what can be seen as the core or hub region of modern urban and regional planning in Europe and the United States. It will end by addressing some of the key factors which helped to shape these processes: the role of individuals, the significance of much broader contextual and structural factors, the role played by governments and the place of a Í€œreformist and technicalÍ€ milieu.