A Typology of Urban and Regional Planners: Who Plans?

Planning is a new, highly complex profession that has achieved considerable success and gained the confidence of the public. If the profession is to build on this success it must reject the narrow conservatism of the professional associations and the short-sighted radicalism of the progressives. This study shows the need to go outside the planning profession to learn from professions that focus on the range of human choices, be they individual (psychology) or group choices (cultural history). Armed with their insights, a "Matrix" of Planners is established for ordering the sixteen types of planner that are here defined and differentiated.