ABSTRACT
Throughout my entire intellectual journey I was always concerned with planning processes and planning institutions. But why? One reason was my reaction to an architecture-cumplanning course in the 1960s, which I found uninspiring. This sharpened my understanding that planning is much more than “just” the designing of spaces. Over the years I understood that planning is a process which shapes minds and not just places. All the different planning institutions, including now those at the European level, play a decisive role in this regard. For this reason, I have always argued that good planning has fi rst of all to unravel the planning environment, including the problems we face now and in the future, in order to make the right decisions. The project of which this book is the product has formed the occasion for refl ecting on the pursuit of this moving target, from both a personal and a scientifi c point of view. My move from Austria to the UK has been decisive, and the UK is where I became the planning theorist as which I will remain known. This and a dose of good luck have taken me-thanks to the gracious support of Raya, my partner-around the world where, amongst others, I met all the authors of this book, mostly on their home turfs. But how did everything begin?
