1st Edition
Histories of Urban Planning and Political Power European Perspectives
Urban planning has always been a preeminent instrument of political power. In this volume, contributions from Europe and Latin America provide insight into the functions of planning under very different political and societal constellations over the last hundred years: dictatorships, parliamentary democracies, and illiberalism; capitalism and state socialism; state interventionism and neoliberalism; societies in times of peace and societies marked by colonial, civil, world, or cold wars.
The dictatorships of the 1920s and 1930s made extensive use of the potential of planning for economic growth, for brutal repression, but also for the integration of certain population groups and as an effective means of propaganda. The legacy of these dictatorships still characterizes many European cities today and confronts planning with complex tasks. Dictatorial state socialism planned to establish a new social order with a particular technocratic rationality, which did not, however, cancel completely the tendential autonomy of the professional planning sphere. Parliamentary democracies and illiberal regimes have developed specific new practices of using planning to rebuild cities in the interests of neoliberal economic growth and populistic legitimization of power.
Histories of Urban Planning and Political Power takes the next steps in significantly expanding our understanding of planning and politics. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of urbanism, urban/town planning, spatial planning, spatial politics, urban development, urban policies, and planning history and European history of the 20th century.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Part 1 Right‑Wing Dictatorships and Their Heritage
1. A European Perspective on National‑Socialist Urbanism
Harald Bodenschatz
2. Reconstruction as a Dictatorial Power Strategy: The Multiple Functions of an Urban Programme in the Early Years of the Franco Regime (1938–1959)
Max Welch Guerra
3. The Dictatorial Modernization of Portugal
Christian Von Oppen
4. Valle De Los Caídos/Valle De Cuelgamuros: Construction, Use and "Dispute Value" of a Gigantic Legacy of the Franco Dictatorship, 1939–2023
Piero Sassi
5. Nuremberg: Nazi Party Rally Grounds in a Changing European Culture of Remembrance
Florian Dierl
6. Italy’s Dealing with Its Fascist Legacy: A History of Development
Daniela Spiegel
7. Urban Heritage and Political Memory Under Dictatorship and Democracy in Chile
Macarena Ibarra and Paulo Álvarez
Part 2 State Socialisms, Parliamentary Democracy, Illiberalism
8. Planning, Politics and Panel Housing: Czechoslovak Housing Estates
Petr Roubal
9. From Comprehensive Planning to Small Interventions: Urban Renewal and Rationalisation in the German Democratic Republic
Jannik Noeske
10. A Twofold Criticism of Spatial Planning: Unique Academic Experiences in the German Democratic Republic
Max Welch Guerra
11. Planning the "Victory of Socialism" and Its Afterlives: The Civic Center of Bucharest Before and After 1989
Gruia Bădescu
12. Sights Set High: Steering the Tertiarisation in Frankfurt Am Main (1945–1986)
Victoria Grau
13. Between Two Domes: Shifting Political Power Relations in Post‑2010 Budapest
Marcell Hajdu
Biography
Victoria Grau studied urban studies at the Bauhaus University, Weimar and at University College Dublin. Since 2022, she has worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Spatial Planning and Spatial Research at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Max Welch Guerra is Senior Professor of Spatial Planning and Spatial Research and Head of the BSc and MSc Urbanistik at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
"With a continental-scale approach, this volume examines variations of urban transformation across decades and political systems. Each case study presents a deep analysis of how spatial planning itself is a political instrument that is never neutral or disengaged from society."
Kimberly E. Zarecor, Professor of Architecture, Iowa State University, USA
"This collection shows how important it is to identify the urbanism of the different European dictatorships as something more than the monolithic image of the monumental buildings and wide boulevards of political power. This transnational European perspective is urgently needed."
José Luis Oyón, Professor of Urbanism, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura del Vallés, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Spain
"This volume serves as the perfect tool to reinforce the perception of cities as unique chronicles of political and social changes that need to be preserved and developed in their complexity."
Henrieta Moravčíková, Professor of Architecture, Department of Architecture at the Institute of History, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia
"In an era of homogenizing global forces, the insightful chapters in this timely volume remind us of the essential roles of national and local culture, political structure and human agency in shaping our built environment."
John Accordino, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA
