Product Description: John Friedmann addresses a central question of Western political theory: how, and to what extent, history can be guided by reason. In this comprehensive treatment of the relation of knowledge to action, which he calls planning, he traces the major intellectual traditions of planning thought and practice...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

This volume contains some of John Friedmann's most controversial essays on spatial and territorial development. Friedmann perceives a global crisis which he traces to the dissolution of territorial relations. The collection includes an autobiographical fragment by the author. (view table of contents)

Friedmann argues that poverty should be seen not merely in material terms, but as social, political and psychological powerlessness. He presents the case for an alternative form of development committed to empowering the poor in their own communities, and to mobilizing them for political participation on a wider scale. In contrast to centralized development, devised and implemented at the national and international levels, this alternative development aims to restore the initiative to those in need, on the grounds that unless people have an active role in directing thier own destinies long-term progress will not be achieved. (view table of contents)

Product Description: In an era of the globalization of finance, production and distribution networks, cities have become increasingly competitive. The business environments preferred by such international investment impact on the lives of citizens, on urban spaces, services, amenities and infrastructure...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: In essays as engaging as they are informative, a leading figure in urban planning and geography broadly surveys the complex terrain of global urbanization. Unique in its scope and its prospective view of city-regions as substantially autonomous "quasi-city-states," this book offers an unprecedented look at the global urban future, focusing on models of development, transnational migration, citizenship, representation, and the good city as a utopian construct...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Though China's urban history reaches back over five thousand years, it is only in the last quarter century that urbanization has emerged as a force of widespread social transformation while a massive population shift from country to city has brought about a dramatic revolution in China's culture, politics, and economy...read more

Product Description: For nearly fifty years John Friedmann's writings have not just led the academic study of the discipline, but have given shape and direction to the planning profession itself. Covering transactive planning, radical planning, the concept of the Good City, civil society, rethinking poverty and the diversity of planning cultures, this collection of Friedmann's most important and influential essays tells a coherent and compelling story about how the evolution of thinking about planning over several decades has helped to shape its practice...read more