Research on Planning History

The second blog text addressed early planning history and described general development directions in the United States and Britain. Both the US and Britain have had a remarkable impact on Australian planning since they all share a lot in history. British influence was evident in the colonialist era and early 20^th century, whereas the Americanization of Australian planning is more profound after WWII (Freestone, 2004; Freestone, 2014, p. 7). As discussed in the latest blog text, these influences include elements such as sprawl that appear to be harmful today. Therefore, it seems that understanding history is necessary to avoid repeating same mistakes.

Indeed, history can be really useful source of decision making but it can also be abused: it can be used to legitimize political ends and agendas (Macmillan, 2009). When planning something new we should always be aware that ‘our ideas and actions have been thought and done by others, long ago […] and understand our roots’ (Hall, 2002). That is, understanding and questioning uncritically accepted wisdoms of history can help to distinguish bad history from good history and contribute to better planning (Freestone, 2014).

Planning history is ‘what you make it’. It can generate various conclusions and ways we perceive things depending on ‘whether it is defined in regulationist, transformative or other ways’. Nevertheless, In Australia, the current state of understanding history is good: more information on history is documented and conventional paradigms are challenged more frequently. (Freestone, 2014, p. 23)

References

Freestone, R 2004, ’The Americanization of Australian Planning’, Journal of Planning History, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 187-214.

Freestone, R 2014, ’Progress in Australian planning history: Traditions, themes and transformation, Progress in Planning, vol. 91, no 1, pp. 1-29.

Hall, P 2002, Cities of Tomorrow: An intellectual history of urban planning and design in the twentieth century, 3^rd edition, Blackwell, London.

Macmillan, M 2009, Uses and Abuses of History, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.