Planning and Knowledge

Mike Raco is Professor of Urban Governance and Development in the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. Federico Savini is an Assistant Professor in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Amsterdam, Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development Studies.

• Part I: Conceptual framings of technocracyThe rise of a new urban technocracy ~ Federico Savini and Mike RacoPlanning, knowledge and technocracy in historical perspective ~ Michael HebbertPart II: Public planning and bureaucracies in contemporary urban development politicsDealing with tensions: the expertise of boundary spanners in facilitating community initiatives ~ Ward Rauws and Martine de JongPlurality of expert knowledge: public planners' experience with urban contractulism in Amsterdam ~ Tuna Tasan-Kok & Martijn van den HurkLocal government in the face of crisis: changing public management of urban projects in Amsterdam ~ Thijs Koolmees and Stan MajoorCaptured by bureaucracy: street-level professionals mediating past, present and future knowledge ~ Nanke VerlooPart III: Corporate knowledge and the land and property development sector Anticipatory knowledge: how development consultants see the future ~ Rachel WeberTowards an ‘information technocracy’: discourses of London’s post-referendum real estate markets ~ Nicola LivingstoneFinance as technocratic agent in urban development ~ Sabine DörryPlanning professionalism in the face of technocracy: ethics, values and practices ~ Susannah Gunn Part IV: private consultants and the delivery of public policy Professional lobbying in urban planning: depoliticization or REpoliticization? ~ Aino Hirvola and Raine MäntysaloAdvocates, advisors and scrutineers: the technocracies of private sector planning in England ~ Gavin Parker, Emma Street and Matthew WargentLocalism and the reconfiguration of planning’s publics in the landscapes of technocrac ~ Sue BrownillThe politics of new urban professions: the case of urban development engineers ~ Jonathan Metzger and Sherif ZakhourPart V: New constellations of actors and the management and governance of contemporary citiesSmart cities, algorithmic technocracy and new urban technocrats ~ Rob Kitchin, Claudio Coletta, Leighton Evans, Liam Heaphy and Darach Mac DonnchaPlanning by numbers: affordable housing and viability in England ~ Antonya LayardTransnational design and local implications for planning: project flights and landings ~ Davide PonziniResearching the best-practice: academic knowledge production, planning and the post-politicisation of environmental politics ~ Samuel Mössner and Catarina Gomes de MatosConclusions: The technocratic logics of contemporary planning ~ Federico Savini and Mike Raco

"Planning and Knowledge is an important contribution to the understanding of contemporary politics and urban development. It highlights the dilemmas of an urban world that appears to be increasingly in the hands of technocrats seeking to depoliticise policy and practice". Rob Imrie, Goldsmiths, University of London