ancient cities

of criticism over the years. There are some commons
strands of critique we can distinguish between
here. One disagreement has been whether regional
planning efforts should mainly emphasize regulations
aimed at protection and setting restrictions
(toward the environment, open space, natural
resources, etc.) or whether it should be directed
toward stimulating new development and growth
(for example, through lists of projects or incentive
zones). Another critique has been about the comprehensive
nature of regional planning. Regional
planning efforts typically feature long-term views
about a variety of policy issues and for larger
(supra local) areas, thereby making links with
actual implementation problematic.
A more important conclusion, however, is that,
in the light of these critiques, the three traditions are
essentially concurrent. Regional planning practice
worldwide will display different blends of all.
Current regional planning, for instance, still links to
certain thoughts set out in the early twentieth century.
Some ideas on urban containment are popular
again in discussions on growth management in the
United States and on the compact city in European
spatial planning. Issues similar to Patrick Geddes’s
Social City can be recognized in recent notions such
as new urbanism, which has emphasized the need
for livable and sustainable communities. Also, levels
of scale are shifting. Policy efforts by international
regimes such as the European Union, the North
American Free Trade Agreement, and the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations are, essentially, regional
planning, emphasizing the larger regional level of
scale and trying to promote and develop interregional
cooperation and cultural, economic, and
social partnerships between regions.
Johan Woltjer
See also City Planning; Edge City; Geddes, Patrick;
Growth Management; Growth Poles; Hall, Peter;
Metropolitan Governance; Metropolitan Region;
Mumford, Lewis; New Regionalism; New Urbanism;
Sprawl; Sustainable Development; Urban Planning
Further Readings
Albrechts, L., P. Healey, and K. R. Kunzmann. 2003.
“Strategic Spatial Planning and Regional Governance
in Europe.” Journal of the American Planning
Association 69(2):113–29.
Renaissance City
653
Amin, A. and N. Thrift, eds. 1994. Globalisation,
Institutions, and Regional Development. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press.
Calthorpe, P. and W. Fulton. 2001. The Regional City:
Planning for the End of Sprawl. Washington, DC:
Island Press.
Friedmann, J. and C. Weaver. 1979. Territory and
Function: The Evolution of Regional Planning.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Geddes, P. 1915. Cities in Evolution. London: Williams
and Norgate.
Glasson, J. 1992. An Introduction to Regional Planning:
Concepts, Theory, and Practice. 2nd ed. London:
UCL Press.
Hall, P. 2002. Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual
History of Urban Planning and Design in the
Twentieth Century. 3rd ed. New York: Basil
Blackwell.
Johnson, D. A., ed. 1996. Planning the Great Metropolis:
The 1929 Regional Plan of New York and Its
Environs. London: E & F Spon.
Keating, M. 1998. The New Regionalism in Western
Europe. London: Edward Elgar.
Kreukels, T., W. Salet, and A. Thornley. 2002.
Metropolitan Governance and Spatial Planning:
Comparative Case Studies of European City-Regions.
London: Spon.
Mumford, L. 1938. The Culture of Cities. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Storper, M. 1997. The Regional World. New York:
Guilford Press.
Wannop, U. A. 1995. The Regional Imperative: Regional
Planning and Governance in Britain, Europe, and the
United States. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Wheeler, S. M. 2002. “The New Regionalism: Key
Characteristics of an Emergent Movement.” APA
Journal 68(3):267–78.
Re n a i S S a n c e ci t y
In panoramic praise of his native city, Coluccio
Salutati, the Florentine humanist chancellor, asked
the rhetorical question: “What city, not merely in
Italy, but in all the world, is more securely placed
within its circle of walls, more proud in its palazzi,
more bedecked with churches, more beautiful in
its architecture, more imposing in its gates, richer
in piazzas, happier in its wide streets, greater in its
people, more glorious in its citizenry, more inexhaustible
in wealth, more fertile in its fields?”