Planning

Planning is a concept that is shared by many disciplines and adopted in different policy sectors, which means it is not easy to find a single comprehensive definition for it. Even in the narrow circle of urban and regional planners, there may be many views on the way a plan can be designed and implemented and for what purpose. Within this theoretical context, this chapter explores the role that urban planning can play in supporting and regulating the development process in large urban areas. The chapter is structured in four sections. After an introduction, in which the concept of planning is explored through different theoretical perspectives, the second section analyzes large urban areas under the lens of planning literature. In the third section, I describe how urban and regional planning has evolved faced with the development issues of urban agglomerations, with a special view to the spatial planning concept and its governance implications. Finally, while recognizing the limits of conventional planning approaches when faced with the spatial organization of contemporary urban regions, I suggest new ways to give planning an appropriate role in shaping metropolitan development.