Stephen V. Ward

The international diffusion of planning: A review and a Canadian case study

Abstract This article notes the different approaches to the international diffusion of planning ideas and practices. It briefly reviews the principal body of work by planning historians to highlight the key themes of such studies. This previous work is then used to develop a simple typology of diffusional episodes, based on the power relationship between the two parties to the diffusion relationship. Thus several forms of imposition and several forms of borrowing are identified. This typology is then used to inform a case study of Canadian planning, focusing particularly on Vancouver. The case study shows how Canadas planning was shaped by recurrent encounters with two major international planning traditions, those of Britain and the US, particularly the latter. These encounters initially resulted in episodes of undiluted borrowing, alternately, from both traditions. Increasingly after 1945, however, these borrowings became more selective, first from Britain and then from the US. By the late 1960s, other...

A Springtime Journey to the Soviet Union: Postwar Planning and Policy Mobilities through the Iron Curtain

This article builds upon a relatively small but growing literature in geography, planning and cognate disciplines that seeks to understand the variegated geographies and histories of policy mobilities. The article uses a case study of an exchange trip between town planners in the Soviet Union and the UK between 1957 and 1958. It focuses on the experiences of the British planners in the Soviet Union and sets the tour within the wider context of a fluctuating and sometimes turbulent history of Anglo-Soviet politics, travels and connections. In doing this, the article makes three arguments: first, there is much to be gained by bringing together the geography-dominated policy mobilities literature with that on exchanges and visits by architects, engineers and planners. Secondly, the greater sensitivity to the histories of policy mobilities allows contemporary studies to be contextualized in the longer history of organized learning between different urban professions. Thirdly, despite the long history of policy mobilities, what differentiates the current era from previous eras is the prominent ‘knowledge intermediary’ roles now played by consultancies and think tanks. As the article will demonstrate, it was branches of government and professional bodies, rather than consultancies and think tanks, that tended to dominate such roles previously.

What did the Germans ever do for us? A century of British learning about and imagining modern town planning

This article uses contemporary sources to trace the recurrent ways in which the British planning movement has drawn on its German equivalent from the early twentieth century to the present day. As with most such European links, the resultant learning has varied. In some cases British references to German planning have been merely to inform or more generally to inspire emulation or occasionally avoidance. But often the learning has provided specific ideas, practices or techniques that have been directly adopted or more usually hybridised or synthesised into the British planning repertoire. German influences have been apparent in aspects of British planning such as land use zoning, city extension, regional planning, housing design, motorways, pedestrianisation, traffic calming and sustainable eco‐suburbs. What, however, has made the British planning movement’s long‐term and mainly admiring engagement with German planning so intriguing is that it has evolved alongside major conflicts and long term suspicion of the German nation itself. The prevailing popular and political imagination within Britain has seen Germany as an especially problematic country from which to learn, more so than, for example, the USA or Scandinavia. This makes British planning’s German connection an instructive case study of cross‐national learning and lesson‐drawing and the factors shaping these processes. It shows the limitations of more conventional conceptualisations of them as rational searches for ‘good practice’. This article shows that they also must be seen as explorations in imaginative geography, concerned with real places, ideas and practices, but viewed through particularly powerful ideological and cultural lenses.

Post-war planning and policy tourism: the international study tours of the Town and Country Planning Association 1947–1961

In light of the burgeoning academic interest in policy mobilities and policy tourism, this paper offers a critical insight into international planning study tours. Countering the contemporary focus of much of the research on these topics, this paper draws on archival research to explore the international study tours of the UKs Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) between 1947 and 1961. In doing this, the paper makes two wider arguments; first, that there remains significant mileage in bringing together the policy mobilities literature with the work on past exchanges and visits by architects, engineers and planners and, second, that greater awareness and appreciation of past examples of comparison and learning might allow contemporary studies to be situated in their longer historical trajectories.

Cities as planning models

A key feature of modern planning history has been the identification of cities admired for their ‘good planning’. In varying degrees, they have stimulated emulation, selective or partial borrowing, or even direct copying of their admired planning features. Model cities at different phases of planning history include Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna, Moscow, London, Stockholm, Barcelona, Chicago, New York, Portland and Vancouver. In recent years, new models have emerged, such as Singapore or Curitiba. The article considers how such cities became or are becoming models. It examines the methods by which the knowledge and reputation of the ‘model’ are promoted and disseminated. The importance of key actors, and visits, conferences and exhibitions focused on planning issues are considered. So too are less specific factors which help draw the gaze of a wider world. The article also considers whether such cities were/are places where new planning approaches have been invented or where they were implemented on a larger scale. Overall the paper discusses a key and strengthening feature in the circulation of contemporary planning knowledge. It does not answer all the surrounding questions in any definitive sense but opens up new debates about planning and the processes behind its historical evolution.

The garden city tradition re‐examined

The garden city idea emerged in the late nineteenth century, but was quickly changed to become a diversified tradition. Ebenezer Howards original reformist project was soon subordinated to largely environmental concerns, which in turn became important aspects of an emergent practice of town planning. The original co‐operative mode of development was also eclipsed by private speculative and governmental modes. The second part of the article briefly reviews the papers presented at the 1989 Bournville Conference, ‘The Garden City Tradition Re‐examined’, detecting nine areas of interest in the historical study of the garden city tradition. These are: the origins of the garden city idea; its development and realisation; industrial villages; garden suburbs; modern variants of the tradition; other variants; garden cities in colonial/resettlement programmes; specific national experiences, and the garden city and other traditions of planning. The prevailing impression is one of diversity of interest and approach ...

New Towns Heritage Research Network

Planning historians everywhere will be interested in this network recently launched in the UK with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and several local authorities and agencies. The initiative reflected the increasing realization that the iconic architectural and urban heritage of postwar New Towns in the UK and mainland Europe is now in danger of being eroded or destroyed. Substantial changes to the carefully planned environments are now occurring as new phases of development seek drastic changes to original planning and design conceptions. Local governments also strive to manage and adapt their towns to reflect the needs and wants of today’s society, different in many ways to those when the New Towns were created. Similarly, individual owners seek changes to their homes as their own needs and aspirations change. These and other pressures to change distinctive planned environments that were once seen as models for a new era have triggered intense debates about the value of New Town heritage which is consequently in urgent need of evaluation and consideration. New Towns were exemplars of utopian social and economic visions allied to modernist ideas of design and architecture. Initially, they were promoted as an answer both to the problems of the large cities that had grown throughout Europe largely during the industrial age and as a way of addressing part of the urgent need for housing after the Second World War. More recently, they came under considerable scrutiny when the ideas of New Urbanism on design, density, and community became dominant. Some have argued that the distinctive urban design of New Towns has undermined their subsequent performance. Yet New Towns across Europe are important to urban and cultural studies because they embody particular built forms and urban designs that are associated with a singular moment in the social and economic heritage of these countries. Post-war New Towns have a remarkable built heritage comprising housing environments, road layouts, shopping centres, iconic buildings, public spaces, and public art which are often considered to be dated and controversial, for example, the road grid system in Milton Keynes or the shopping centres at Harlow and Stevenage. The New Town heritage debate is particularly opportune at a time when post-war modernist heritage is being assessed both in the UK and in Europe partially because it is in need of refurbishment and renewal and increasingly under threat of demolition. A further stimulus is that many New Towns are reaching significant anniversaries. The first UK New Town at Stevenage, designated in November 1946, has recently begun celebrating its seventieth anniversary. New Towns in our Network such as Milton Keynes and Peterborough will be celebrating their fiftieth ‘birthdays’ in the project period, with Harlow (70) and Zoetermeer (55) also having anniversaries. The anniversaries are attracting national and international attention to the New Town story. Many are uncertain whether to retain their modernist past, or to create a new identity, or to emphasise their earlier, market town origins. Milton Keynes, for example, the most nationally and internationally prominent New Town, has decided to promote its modernist design heritage as part of its future strategy. The Research Network is novel for three reasons. Firstly, the Network project has a distinctly architectural and urban heritage focus not usually associated with post-war New Towns. Most New Town studies have a wider town planning remit and the specific nature of their built environment heritage is little understood and even less appreciated. Secondly, it is a collaboration between New Town researchers from three different sectors – universities, local government, and civic society organizations. The PLANNING PERSPECTIVES, 2017 VOL. 32, NO. 2, 281–283 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2016.1277955

Searching for effective and democratic town planning: the international travels of Sir Ernest Simon, 1936–1943

ABSTRACT This article examines the international journeys made during 1936–1943 by Sir Ernest Simon, the prominent Manchester reformer and businessman, to investigate urban planning in Moscow, Zurich, Stockholm, and across the United States. The research uses Simon’s own handwritten notes and other archival sources, together with subsequently published material where he drew lessons from these places for Britain. It is a detailed case study of ‘policy tourism’ and ‘cross-national learning’ by an individual important in the town planning movement who was also part of a wider demand for economic and social planning being influentially promoted at the time by cross-party ‘middle opinion’. The visits formed part of his personal search for a form of town planning that was both as effective as that in the Soviet Union but also democratic and consistent with British political values. Switzerland and Sweden were judged as successful democracies, able to plan their most important cities effectively without recourse to totalitarian methods. The United States he approached with suspicions of its tradition of pervasive city corruption. However, he returned heralding the Tennessee Valley Authority and New York City’s express highways and parks as the world’s most outstanding examples of democratic planning.

Consortium Developments Ltd and the failure of ‘new country towns’ in Mrs Thatcher’s Britain

This article examines the attempt by Britain’s biggest house builders to launch a privately‐initiated programme of ‘new country towns’ during the 1980s. It was their response to the policy changes of the Thatcher governments, shrinking the state sector and deregulating private enterprise. Consortium Developments Ltd (CDL) was established in 1983, intending to develop up to 15 new country towns in the prosperous region around London, where housing demand was high but local planning very restrictive of developers. Each town would comprise around 5000 dwellings with social and physical infrastructure largely provided by CDL. The concept was a novel one in twentieth century Britain, where new settlements had been developed previously by philanthropic companies or by government agencies. Advised by planners associated with Milton Keynes, CDL effectively updated the Garden City–New Town tradition for the Thatcher era. However, despite pushing four proposals through the planning process, all failed. This largely reflected opposition of the government’s own party supporters, who did not want Thatcherism shaping their own areas. In the face of this, Thatcher’s ministers were ultimately unwilling to support CDL. Combined with the effects of the 1990s property slump, the volume builders withdrew and CDL was dissolved. Its failure partly reflects wider fracture lines in Thatcherism, compounded by the aggressive and very public campaigning style of its own operations which gave each proposal a very wide political resonance. Thatcherism gave way to a more restrictive planning climate in the 1990s. Paradoxically, a Labour government is now, from 2003, creating massive new opportunities for private house building and town development around London.

Thomas Sharp as a figure in the British planning movement

The planner, Thomas Sharp, has often been portrayed as an outsider in the wider British town planning movement. In part this reputation reflects his prickly personality and a widespread professional perception in the 1950s and 1960s that he was a quirky individualist at odds with the mainstream of town plannings evolution. This paper argues, however, that in the 1930s and 1940s Sharp was central to British planning history. In part, the marginalisation of Sharp reflects the tendency to write the story of British planning in terms of two visionary movements – the garden city and modernism – with neither of which he felt comfortable. Often dismissed by his critics as a traditionalist, he actually sought physical modernisation that cherished and reproduced in new development, without imitating, what he saw as the best of what already existed. From this perspective and his unique insights on the depressed north east of England, Sharp made seminal contributions to the growing anti‐suburban and rural preservationist movements and fed the arguments for a national policy for more balanced regional development. All were central strategic priorities of post‐1945 planning policies. His pre‐war writings and 1940s plans were also seminal to all townscape analysis.