Introduction

In liberal academic circles there would no doubt be a general assent to the notions that travel broadens the mind and that ‘What should they know of England who only England know’1. Applied to the field of town planning, this must surely act as healthy counterweight to the insularity which is evident in the tendency to regard the British system as the one against which all others pale in comparison. Cross-national research and study are good, such an argument might run, because they help us to see our system in perspective. But what we may actually mean by this perspective, and what utility there may be in developing it, is by no means necessarily clear.