ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how planning can regain a political and popular purpose at a time when it is needed more than ever. There are reasons to be both pessimistic and optimistic about the future. We face a ‘long emergency’ as a result of the disruption and destruction that the major challenges we face will bring. But instead of the fatalism fed to us by the new right, we need to believe again in our ability to shape the future. Planning has a crucial project in the twenty-first century: a story of survival and reconstruction, for managing and limiting the disruption from major challenges and then developing and promoting new ways of living. This includes a critical role for researchers and the planning academy in providing the evidence we need and educating the next generation of planners.
