This 2008 selection by John Friedmann (1926-2017) – the leading twentieth-century urban planning theorist – from the Journal of Planning Education and Research summarizes the evolution of contemporary urban planning theory and many of Friedmann’s own influential ideas.

Friedmann identifies three “tasks” for planning theory: a philosophical task to develop a deeply considered humanist philosophy for planning and its implications for practice; an adaptation task to help adapt planning practices to their real-world scale, complexity, and time constraints; and a translation task to translate concepts and knowledges generated in other fields into the planning domain and to render them accessible and useful for planners.

Friedmann believed that the world’s major challenge in an increasingly materialist, individualist world, largely indifferent to humans’ impacts on the natural environment, is to develop a human-centered philosophy to help build sustainable and livable cities that will allow individuals to flourish to their full potential.

Friedmann argues that in the last fifty years three big shifts in planning theory have occurred. The first has been toward making planning more of a whole-society process rather than primarily a technical one. The second shift has turned planning increasingly into a political art. A third shift has been the direct engagement of planners with the art of getting things done. In his opinion today’s planners are no longer merely analysts advising politicians; they have (or can) become political actors in their own right.