Urban Planning In A Capitalist Society

Originally published in 1980, Urban Planning in a Capitalist Society addresses land use planning as both a technical and a political activity, involving the distribution of scarce resources – land and capital. The book reviews and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of several theoretical perspectives, and pluralist, bureaucratic, reformist and Marxist approaches to the distribution of power, and hence resources in a capitalist society. It concentrates on the role played by planning professionals, the opportunity for the public to influence land use planning decision making, and the scope for political action concerning planning.

Originally published in 1981, Urbanization and Urban Planning in Capitalist Society, is a comprehensive collection of papers addressing urban crises. Through a synthesis of current discussions around various critical approaches to the urban question, the book defines a general theory of urbanization and urban planning in capitalist society. It examines the conceptual preliminaries necessary for the establishment of capitalist theory and provides a theoretical exposition of the fundamental logic of urbanization and urban planning. It also provides a detailed discussion of commodity production and its effects on urban development.

“This superbly succinct and incisive book couldn’t be more timely or urgent.” —Michael Sorkin, author of All Over the Map Our cities are changing. Around the world, more and more money is being invested in buildings and land. Real estate is now a $217 trillion dollar industry, worth thirty-six times the value of all the gold ever mined. It forms sixty percent of global assets, and one of the most powerful people in the world—the president of the United States—made his name as a landlord and developer. Samuel Stein shows that this explosive transformation of urban life and politics has been driven not only by the tastes of wealthy newcomers, but by the state-driven process of urban planning. Planning agencies provide a unique window into the ways the state uses and is used by capital, and the means by which urban renovations are translated into rising real estate values and rising rents. Capital City explains the role of planners in the real estate state, as well as the remarkable power of planning to reclaim urban life.

Starting with the colonial period, but focusing especially on the Progressive era, Richard Foglesong offers both a narrative account and a theoretical interpretation of urban planning in the United States. Originally published in 1986. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Urban and Regional Planning Series, Volume 27: Critical Readings in Planning Theory presents a critical perspective on urban and regional planning. This book provides an understanding of various theoretical perspectives on planning. Organized into five parts encompassing 19 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the economic and social theory of planning. This text then examines the procedural planning theory, which deals with the making and implementing of plans. Other chapters consider the introduction of the systems approach to planning. This book discusses as well the theoretical respecification of the nature of town planning as it has developed under capitalism. The final chapter deals with the ideology of planning that is consistent with the view that town planning can be objectively useful. This book is a valuable resource for students of planning who want to understand planning as it is. Urban planners and engineers will also find this book useful.

Urban Policy Under Capitalism breaks with both orthodox Marxism and liberal urban analysis to study urban development as a function of the capitalist mode of production. For them the search for optimal urban policy is ideologically mystifying -- the demands of efficient capital accumulation, of different business interests, and of social welfare clash to produce urban policy. Their work takes a genuinely comparative perspective, researching conditions in many parts of the world to identify common trends. 'This volume is a collection of essays containing stimulating thought and refreshing approach to the understanding of state activities affecting the use of urban space and built environment. Studies like this bunch of essay

Manifesto on the urban commons from the acclaimed theorist.

Taylor describes the development of urban planning ideas since the end of the Second World War, outlining the main theories from the traditional view of planning as an exercise in physical design to recent views of planning as 'communicative action'.

The worldwide financial crisis has sent shock-waves of accelerated economic restructuring, regulatory reorganization and sociopolitical conflict through cities around the world. It has also given new impetus to the struggles of urban social movements emphasizing the injustice, destructiveness and unsustainability of capitalist forms of urbanization. This book contributes analyses intended to be useful for efforts to roll back contemporary profit-based forms of urbanization, and to promote alternative, radically democratic and sustainable forms of urbanism. The contributors provide cutting-edge analyses of contemporary urban restructuring, including the issues of neoliberalization, gentrification, colonization, "creative" cities, architecture and political power, sub-prime mortgage foreclosures and the ongoing struggles of "right to the city" movements. At the same time, the book explores the diverse interpretive frameworks – critical and otherwise – that are currently being used in academic discourse, in political struggles, and in everyday life to decipher contemporary urban transformations and contestations. The slogan, "cities for people, not for profit," sets into stark relief what the contributors view as a central political question involved in efforts, at once theoretical and practical, to address the global urban crises of our time. Drawing upon European and North American scholarship in sociology, politics, geography, urban planning and urban design, the book provides useful insights and perspectives for citizens, activists and intellectuals interested in exploring alternatives to contemporary forms of capitalist urbanization.