ABSTRACT
The windows metaphor has guided us along a journey through the practice of planning history, with most diverse contributions from different continents, variegated thematic foci and, of course, changing perspectives upon reality. This chapter aims to distil and summarises the approaches that can be found in them and the ways the windows metaphor was applied. Its aim is to shed light on the relevance of the window metaphor by characterising how it can be actively made fruitful for planning history. Applying the window metaphor to planning history reveals that opening new windows can trigger entire new strands of research. However, making use of the window metaphor could also help explain the limitations of research. Finally, the window metaphor should also be included in planning history education and help raise students' sensitivities to the significance of research results, hopefully even explaining why multiple dimensions of insight are more than arbitrary post-modernist relativism.
