Planning Matter

"In this extraordinary work Beauregard makes a strikingly original contribution to planning thought. Embracing a new materialism, he examines the interplay between the physical and human world, avoiding both Marxian determinism and a vision of the world as existing wholly through perception. Filled with brilliant insights, this book can be read as planning theory, philosophy, and sociology."-- "Susan S. Fainstein, Harvard Graduate School of Design and author of The Just City" "This is a brilliant book. Planning Matter is carefully crafted, rigorously argued, and truly original, poised to become a seminal component of planning literature for decades to come. Beauregard has rethought the debates that have been central to planning theory for decades, and his book will open up new pathways for scholarly investigation--and perhaps even creative action by practitioners."-- "James A. Throgmorton, author of Planning as Persuasive Storytelling" "Planning Matter goes back to some of its roots and does away (at least partly) with the new materialist experiment. It ends up advocating for the modernist aspiration of civic duty of the planner, but with a focus on 'hybridizing' rather than simply 'purifying' as the planner-as-modernist-organizer was. In a sense, the attempt at a 'third' materialism in the theory of planning espoused in the introduction is partly successful here, but the reader might ultimately be left wondering how to apply such an approach. Inevitably, at a second read and as in any good movie with a final twist, the book might in fact appear more of a thought experiment than a new theory of planning. Nevertheless, as a 'Sixth Sense' book offering an unexpected end and a relatively new sensibility (for planning practice), Beauregard's Planning Matter certainly stands up as one of the most interesting reads of the last few years."-- "Urban Studies"

Robert A. Beauregard is professor of urban planning in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. He is the author of When America Became Suburban and Voices of Decline: The Postwar Fate of U.S. Cities.