ABSTRACT

Networks may well turn out to be the defining concept of the emerging era. While networks have always existed, globalization, information technology, and the accompanying rapidity of change and increasing complexity of our social and political systems have greatly increased the importance of networks and our need to understand and work with them. Fortunately there are major literatures on networks dating back into the 1960s for scholars and practitioners to draw on, as well as literatures emerging today with the revival of interest in networks. Understanding what this work has to offer will be critical to effective urban planning in the century to come. It offers a rich set of ideas and empirical findings that can and should be integrated into planning thought and practice.