Abstract
During the 1960s, different critical voices emerged with regard to the main gaps of technocratic planning (what Jacobs calls ‘modern, orthodox city planning’), voices highlighting the oversimplifying epistemological approaches that had been characterising planning in the first half of the twentieth century. Jane Jacobs’ thought has been of paramount importance in influencing planning and urban discourses worldwide, but she has not been isolated: in the same years, other critical voices have been shaping a critical thought and fostering debate, on both sides of the Atlantic. Among them, Paul Davidoff, appealing for advocacy planning in NYC, Giancarlo De Carlo, proposing a sharp critique of architectural and planning education in Italy and Reyner Banham and his group, advocating the (paradoxical) possibility of non-planning in the UK. This article proposes to identify a relevant common feature across their positions in the connection between epistemological and political critique; as Jane Jacobs, many critics of traditional technocratic planning underline the inappropriate and ineffective mechanisms of knowledge production and use in urban planning: if cities are characterised by organised complexity (‘intricate social and economic order under the seeming disorder of cities’, as Jacobs puts it), then it is not possible to reduce them to ‘simple problems’. These authors develop their interpretative discourses in different ways, and advance different proposals to bridge this gap, combining in original ways the epistemological dimension with a political and a cultural one.
Highlights
Jane Jacobs’ position on the use of rationality (Jacobs 1961; Callahan and Ikeda 2014; Laurence 2016) and on the over-reliance on scientific and technical reasoning in urban planning and urban regeneration policies has been of great importance for its consequences on the planning and urban studies debate, but it is by no means isolated in the 1960s
Among the vast array of emerging voices, criticising the epistemological gap that characterises much planning theory and practice in the first half of the twentieth century, the article will focus on the positions and arguments of Paul Davidoff in the US, Giancarlo De Carlo in Italy and Paul Barker, Reyner Banham and a group of other intellectuals in the UK
Connecting epistemology and politics: critiques to planning in the 1960s In the years after the publication of Death and Life of Great American Cities, different critical voices within and outside the urban planning field critically discussed the points so clearly highlighted by Jane Jacobs, in some cases in direct connection with her thought, in others independently: among the many interesting ones, we will discuss in particular Davidoff ’s, Barker and Banham’s, and De Carlo’s ones
Summary
Jane Jacobs’ position on the use of rationality (Jacobs 1961; Callahan and Ikeda 2014; Laurence 2016) and on the over-reliance on scientific and technical reasoning in urban planning and urban regeneration policies has been of great importance for its consequences on the planning and urban studies debate, but it is by no means isolated in the 1960s. There are two main elements in common among the different positions: the first one is the critical discussion of the intrinsic limits of positivist rationality, especially when it is applied to contexts such as urban planning; as Palermo and Ponzini observe, this critique has significantly influenced the ideal of radical modernisation projects, both in architecture and in urban planning: “the experience of modernity has revealed ambiguities and paradoxes in the traditional aspiration to scientifically establishing public action.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
