ABSTRACT
Does planning history need theory? Compared to most other historical social science research, explicitly theoretical work is rare in planning history. For example, Peter Hall’s brilliant Cities of Tomorrow is great planning history but scarcely mentions any theoretical framing explicitly, apart from claiming a desire to reassert the importance of actors and ideas over structural forces in shaping events. Hall’s grand narrative clearly relies on more than a concept of agency, but he reveals few of his theoretical assumptions. Many planning historians do frame their research theoretically, but few if any have attempted to develop theoretical approaches specific to planning history. This chapter argues that macro comparative historical analysis and historical institutionalism provide valuable theoretical and methodological approaches for planning history, and that issues particular to planning, including the development of institutions of local governance, and the regulation of land and property development, provide opportunities to contribute to these theories.
