ABSTRACT
The development of marxist urban theory has raised new issues for scholars who believe that urban planning can be connected with social progress in the United States. Demystification of categories such as rationality and the public interest has been transcended by discussions of state autonomy, cooptation and the determinants of urban form. Critics of the present system have gone beyond demonstrating that traditional planning serves bourgeois interests and have begun to discuss strategies for structural change and the boundaries of action under capitalism. This paper briefly outlines the elements of the marxist theory of urban planning in advanced capitalist societies, then ex amines in greater detail the terms of debate within this paradigm as it applies to the United States. Finally, it considers the relationship between theory and praxis in planning. For these purposes urban planning theory is defined as comprising two analytically separable but mutually dependent parts: a theory of planning process or activity and a theory of urban structure and development.
