Sir Peter Hall Annual Lecture - Knowledge/Ignorance and Planning

Knowledge/Ignorance and Planning

Planning as a profession is based on the exercise of specialist expertise and associated knowledge. Universities position themselves as the guardians of knowledge and the means of transmitting that to new generations. But is this a sufficient view of knowledge and planning? This talk examines perspectives on the construction of planning knowledge and its relation to aspects of the planning system such as its legitimate remit and the exercise of power. It traces how these aspects have changed over time, with implications for how we view planning knowledge. It ventures into ignorance studies to further challenges pre-conceived views of the role of knowledge and concludes with a discussion of the role of universities in educating the planners of the future, necessarily engaging with the dramatic advent of artificial intelligence into both planning and pedagogic practice.

About the speaker

Yvonne Rydin is Professor of Planning, Environment and Public Policy at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL. She has researched and written widely on governance for sustainability, particularly at the urban level. In recent years, she has developed a critique of growth-dependent planning into an examination of postgrowth perspectives for planning. Her books The Future of Planning and Planning without Growth are both published by Policy Press. A constant thread within her work has been the role of knowledge within planning, drawing on environmental sociology, political science and science & technology studies. During her career she has sought to reach student audiences with a series of accessible books and textbooks. The most recent of these are Theory of Planning Research, which she authored, and New Planning Histories, which she co-edited, both published by Palgrave Macmillan.