Fifty Theses on Urban and Regional Planning, Rapheal Fischler (2012)

The first post I am going to talk about is the Fifty Theses on Urban and Regional Planning and Urban Planners. Throughout this post I will summarise this essay and give my views on the topic.

Urban and Regional Planning is hard to define as Rapheal Fischler describes in his essay, He divides his fifty theses into 6 different categories. These include the General thesis, Theses on the meaning and origins of Urban Planning, Theses on the substance and uses of Urban Planning, Theses on good Planning and good plans, Theses on Urban Planners and finally Theses on planning education and research.

Rapheal Fischler describes Urban Planning as 'ill defined in contents and in scope'. he also describes how 'the public hardly knows what to expect of it's practitioners'. This painting a picture for the rest of the essay defining and giving a common understanding of what Urban Planning is.
In the first theses Fischler talks about 18 different contradictions or tensions that makes hard to define Urban Planning. This further complicates and demonstrates the troubles that Planners face when describing there field as some of the contradictions include things like Urban Planners and value-based advocacy and Urban planning and as unbiased advice, between Urban Planning as plan making for the future and for the community and Urban Planning as deliberation by the community, these are only a few of the eighteen tensions or contradictions that are faced with defining Urban Planning.

In Fischler's second theses on the meaning and origins of Urban Planning he talks about the what it means to be an Urban planner and also where planning came from, 'Urban Planning is the collective management of Urban development, the use of purposeful deliberation to give shape to the human settlements'. This quote I think gives the most meaning to what a Planner actually does, 'give shape to human settlement' The next theses is on the substance and uses of Urban Planning, Fischler talks about Urban Planning being a 'design activity', it is a 'political activity', Urban planning can be a 'force for good or a force for evil'. These are some of the ways that Fischler describes good planning and good plans. He also describes Urban Planners as, 'analysts, advisers, designers, facilitators, when these roles are played they are community builders they also help to give shape and meaning to social life in a given place. The last theses that FIschler talks about is on Planning education and research. Throughout this he says that Planning education is at its best when it enables students to acquire a good understanding of the process of Urban change.      

throughout this essay Fischler paints a good picture and in my opinion he demonstrates what an Urban planner actually does as well as describing the origins or Urban planning. It also gave me a clear idea of all the things that are associated with Urban planning...

Thank you for reading this post and I hope to get some comments of your thoughts,

Thanks

Thomas Ellwood