ABSTRACT

Few planning historians have explicitly labelled their work as cultural history. Yet most have in recent years tried to reveal the attitudes, values and goals which have moulded planning (Ward, Freestone and Silver 2011). They have explored the social and cultural milieu within which planning ideas were conceived and elaborated and the wider political and business networks that empowered them. Planning has also been seen as a cultural form in its own right, with distinct national, regional and local characteristics. Yet it has also reflected larger international patterns of dominance and deference in the cultural and other spheres.