ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the rise and fall of efforts at long-term planning, from the post-war era up to the present, to the point where much urban and regional planning has been pushed back into being largely about the present, which arguably may not be planning at all. This also reflects a broader collapse in belief in our ability to anticipate and shape the future. The academic community also comes in for some criticism here for not defending planning and (echoed across the social sciences) for failing to help create the future, instead too often collapsing into postmodern relativism.
