ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the current debate over the mobility turn as a new epistemological framework for the social sciences and, more specifically, for sciences interested in spatial development. It reviews the historical construction of urban planning and how its own identity is linked to transport and movement issues. The chapter explains the idea of circulation as a key concept in the development of representations that shape the way cities are organised. It explores the issue of how the meanings of transport and movement-related elements have changed in history and therefore have influenced intentions behind spatial planning, suggesting that these changes should be regarded through the logic of a circulation dispositif using Michel Foucaults theories. Urban planning became a discipline in the 19th century in order to diagnose the industrial city, which was perceived to be a sick organism that needed to be healed.