Planning is undergoing a period of profound change and risks losing meaning and authority by becoming merely a tool for financial speculation and generating capital. Planning and Citizenship seeks to rediscover planning's technical and theoretical roots by reconstructing the memory of planning through the lens of the changing relationship between planning and citizenship.

Tracing the historical relationship between planning and citizenship through a single thread, Luigi Mazza employs three ancient models - those of Hippodamus, Romulus, and Ancient China - to understand the foundations of spatial governance and citizenship. Paying particular attention to classic case studies of American cities, this book moves through the development of central planning theories by key thinkers like Geddes, Cerda, Howard, Abercrombie and Lefebre. Analysing the role of government in promoting social citizenship and symbolic values through planning, Mazza takes into account the changing role of government in planning, including concepts of neoliberalism and the minimal State.

Providing critical debate over the current role of spatial governance in planning and citizenship, Planning and Citizenship offers a unique historical analysis of a crucial topic in planning.

About the Author
Luigi Mazza has been an active planner mainly in the urban planning field. He is also the founding editor of the Planning Theory journal, and a member of the board of the Town Planning Review, European Planning Studies, DISP, the Planning Review, Spatium, International Review, and Planning Theory, all of which have published his articles.

Reviews

"Planning and Citizenship is in a class by itself. Nowhere else are the connections --ancient and recent, inevitable and contingent -- between planners' practices and spatial governance illustrated so elegantly and to such valuable purpose: to clearly show planners why and how their work always affects the qualities of citizenship." - Beth Moore Milroy, Professor Emerita, Ryerson University, Toronto

"Interweaving thoughtful meditation and fresh argument, Mazza leads us though time and space to rethink both the foundations and the everyday character of spatial governance. We might begin by considering a street grid, but we soon come to see the constitution of citizenship and rights, the play of power via inclusion and exclusion, the integration of microcosm in macrocosmic order . . . and we reimagine spatial planning and governance along the way." - John Forester, Cornell University, USA

"Based on his life-long engagement with planning theory and practice Luigi Mazza in a very erudite and skillful way, going back as far as to Greek, Italian and Chinese ancient models and more recent key thinkers as Geddes, Cerda, Howard, Abercrombie and Lefebvre, reflects on building blocks for a renewed citizenship so crucial for contemporary planning theory and practice." - Louis Albrechts, Emeritus-Professor of Planning, KU Leuven, Belgium

Book Information
ISBN 9780815381938
Author Luigi Mazza
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Inc
Weight(grams) 453g