[currently these pages are just lists of links related to the old subtitle “Social science and its critics”. I thought some of these controversies might be interesting to some readers]
“In spite of the geometric progression in the quantity of scholars who have devoted themselves – more or less totally – to theoretical reflections about planning, both as a practice and as an academic discipline (to the point of founding a new strand or discipline of study, Planning Theory), I think that a diffuse, creeping uneasiness has pervaded all the participants of this discipline.” (Franco Archibugi. Planning Theory: Reconstruction or Requiem for Planning? 2004 Link)
“This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding. It is also, and mostly, an attempt to introduce new principles of city planning and rebuilding, different and even opposite from those taught in everything from schools of architecture and planning to the Sunday supplements and women’s magazines. My attack is not based on quibbles about rebuilding methods or hairsplitting about fashions in design. It is an attack, rather, on the principles and aims that have shaped modern, orthodox city planning and rebuilding.” Opening paragraph, Jacobs, 1961
One of the better sites on making healthy cities Walkable DFW – Restoring a City to Walkability It happens to be about my hometown, so I especially enjoy it as I know the areas he writes about. But the site is better than most urbanism websites I have seen even if you don’t know the area. And it is especially important as in the US, the challenge ahead for healthy cities will be changing metropolitan areas such as DFW into walkable cities. Even thinking about this herculean task gives me a headache, so kudos to Patrick Kennedy.