ABSTRACT
This chapter develops an institutional approach to theorizing planning history research, drawing on macro comparative historical analysis (CHA), and Historical Institutionalism (HI). The core subjects of planning history including the evolution of planning institutions structuring urban land and property development, and the role of those institutions in shaping property development and property rights in land. CHA is an interdisciplinary research agenda that emphasizes comparative study of big questions and structures over long periods, while HI is a theory originating in political science that focuses on the role of institutions in structuring social, political, and economic processes. The chapter argues that a combination of these approaches can inform explicit theory development in planning history; can contribute to the development of planning history theory, and is an opportunity for planning historians to contribute to a comparative understanding of differentiation in trajectories of urban industrialization and economic development.
