Systems View of Planning: Towards a Theory of the Urban and Regional Planning Process

This book sets out to be a theory of the process known as town and regional planning. It is a theory of a special kind in that it is based upon a broader theory: that of General Systems and its allied field of Cybernetics. In consequence, the contents of these pages differ considerably from what most town planners have, so far, thought of as being relevant to their subject. The reasons for this difference should become clear to the reader as he progresses through the book: the standpoint is simply that planning is a much more general, a commoner, activity than planners have considered it to be: common to all human beings, common to all scientific investigations; planning is a general method, quite independent of the field within which it is practiced. This book, therefore, may be more general, and less specific, than “practical” planners would like it to be. Practical examples are covered herein, but before and beyond this, any attempt to set up a new professional outlook must have its roots soundly based in nourishing—and unshifting— theory. This book attempts to provide that theory, in the belief that this will be of more lasting value—after all, “there is nothing so practical as a good theory”, as Bertrand Russell said (or was it George Bernard Shaw ?). Because of this standpoint, much of this work becomes an attempt to interpret scientific theory, culled from other fields, to the professional planner, whether practitioner or student: it leans very heavily, inevitably, therefore, upon more general texts in systems theory, cybernetics, and allied fields. The interpretation and the integration of many otherwise independently viewed facets into a whole framework, attempting both a philosophy and a methodology—is the author’s own. Had similar work existed before, there would have been no need to write this book.