Compromise Planning : A Theoretical Approach from a Distant Corner of Europe

Louis C. Wassenhoven is Professor Emeritus (Urban and Regional Planning), National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), a Postgraduate Diploma in Planning from the Architectural Association School of Architecture (London), an MA in Architecture (NTUA) and a Certificate in Town Planning (Ministry of Housing, France). Apart from his career at NTUA, where he was the director of the Laboratory of Regional Planning and Urban Development, he has taught as Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the Development Planning Unit, Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning (University College London) and as visiting teacher in other universities. He has served as chairman of the Greek National Council of Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development, as chairman of the Steering Committee of the Joint Activity on Urban Management of OECD, as vice-chairman of the Greek State Scholarships Foundation, as member of the board of the company Hellinikon s.a. (Management and Redevelopment of the site of the former Athens international airport), and as member of the council of the Technical University of Crete. He is a past member of the British Royal Town Planning Institute and a member of the Association of Greek Urban and Regional Planners. He is the author of four books in Greek, i.e., on Territorial Governance, Maritime Spatial Planning, Hellenic … passion: Development of the former Hellinikon airport of Athens, and Putting order in our country: A history of spatial planning in Greece after World War II (in print). He is also the author of a book in English (The Ancestry of Regional Spatial Planning: A planner’s look at history) published by Springer, and of a number of articles and papers in Greek or English. He wrote the volume on Greece of the EU Compendium of Spatial Planning Systems and Policies.

• Ch.1 Introduction – Defining the problem.- PART I: Review of theories.- Ch.2 Planning theories: Typologies and overcrowding.- Ch.3 Mainstream theories: The rational and communicative currents.- Ch.4 Theoretical challenges: The radical current and Southern theory.- Ch.5 The “climate” current: Environmental concerns in the Anthropocene age.- PART II: Greece as a case study.- Ch.6 Greece: On the edge of North and South – A historical perspective.- Ch. 7 The state as a crucial parameter for the interpretation of planning.- Ch. 8 The Greek planning system: A case study at the tip of the Balkan peninsula.- Part III: A theory of compromise planning.- Ch.9 Planners, knowledge transfer, planning culture: Looking for a new theory.- Ch. 10 Compromise planning and homo individualis.- Ch.11 Conclusions: The parallel worlds of planning - Variants of compromise.- Index.