Encounters in Planning Thought: 16 Autobiographical Essays from Key Thinkers in Spatial Planning

Encounters in Planning Thought builds on the intellectual legacy of spatial planning through essays by leading scholars from around the world, including John Friedmann, Peter Marcuse, Patsy Healey, Andreas Faludi, Judith Innes, Rachelle Alterman and many more. Each author provides a fascinating and inspiring unravelling of his or her own intellectual journey in the context of events, political and economic forces, and prevailing ideas and practices, as well as their own personal lives.

This is crucial reading for those interested in spatial planning, including those studying the theory and history of spatial planning. Encounters in Planning Thought sets out a comprehensive, intellectual, institutional and practical agenda for the discipline of spatial planning as it heads towards its next half-century. Together, the essays form a solid base on which to understand the most salient elements to be taken forward by current and future generations of spatial planners.

Beatrix Haselsberger is Senior Researcher at the Department of Spatial Planning at the Vienna University of Technology, Austria. She is also Visiting Professor at the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale e Architettura at the University of Cagliari, Italy. Her current research focuses on the nature of borders (physical and invisible) and their impacts on space and people, cross-border interaction and cooperation as well as planning cultures, its diversity and origin. With her research she seeks to bridge the gap between planning theory and practice. Beatrix is active in the Association of European Schools of Planning and the Regional Studies Association, where she has been a member of the executive committees, as well as on the editorial boards of a wide range of journals. Together with her partner, an ecologist, she will open a spatial research and planning consultancy in Austria, in the near future.