What planners can learn from geography or what geographers have overlooked about planning

Abstract

As fields equally concerned with the production of space and place, geographers and planners are engaged in understanding the compact city both as a concept and as a built and lived reality. In response to Haarstad et al.'s renewed agenda for research on compact urbanism, this comment piece seeks to shift their perception of planning and planners as being narrowly focused on urban form, to a more fulsome understanding of planning's contribution.

Grounding the compact city

“…The second thread of reflections that these commentaries sparked for us is on the relations and divergences between human geography, the academic discipline of planning, and the practice of planning. Both Phelps (2023) and Hickman (2023) insistin critique of our articlethat the planning discipline is not ignorant of the political, ideological, and social effects of the compact city agenda. We did not intend to suggest that it is, and hope that it is not read as suggesting that planning lacks these insights.…”