Construction of the planning idea: Britain, the USA and Australia 1929–1939

Abstract

In the 1930s the idea of planning captured the imagination of the world. Politicians, social reformers, academics and professionals from numerous fields took up the bones of the idea and gave substance to it in accordance with their particular traditions, interests and resources. In this article the immediate origins of the post‐depression planning phenomenon are examined. Comment is made on the assumptions underlying the planning faith. British, American and Australian sources are scanned, to identify points of actual or potential contact between the various fields of thought in which the word planning was commonly employed or in which the concept was implicit; including urban planning, regional development planning, Keynesian macro‐economic management and the Technocracy movement. It was at regional level that the best prospects existed for a joining of minds between planners from different disciplines. However, planning was too general an idea to serve as the defining element of a unified field of theory or action.

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