Critical Realism, Urban Planning and Urban Research

Abstract

The paper discusses key meta-theoretical presuppositions for urban planning to be possible and meaningful, pointing at critical realism as a fruitful philosophical position for research within urban planning and urban studies. For ontological reasons, critical realism considers that interdisciplinary integration is necessary to arrive at valid knowledge, whereas competing positions such as positivism and poststructuralism tend to neglect important parts of reality. Critical realism acknowledges the independent causal powers of both agents and structures and thus provides a suitable platform for investigating causal relationships between social conditions, spatial urban structures and the actions of agents (including those of planners). Moreover, a critical realist view on the possibilities of research-based predictions squares well with the qualitative impact assessments of alternative solutions and the modest, context-adapted estimates of magnitudes of effects typical within urban planning.