Urban transformations and management practice has always been complex, ambiguous and unstable, and therefore difficult to set into fixed and shared concepts. Through the decades, theoretical debate has formed an eclectic set of possible perspectives, without finding, in our opinion, a coherent paradigmatic framework which can adequately guide interpretation and action in urban planning. The hypothesis of this book is that the attempts of founding an autonomous planning theory are inadequate if they do not explore two interconnected fields: architecture and public policies. In this sense, reconsidering urban planning practices assuming the angle of architecture and public policies is a proper choice in order to better understand critical points and possibilities for governing urban and spatial transformations. Planning theory can be considered as a field crowded with issues and questions of great interest, but still undetermined in terms of principles and exemplary experiences. Exploring the architecture/public policy crossway could allow the reframing of planning problems in a more convincing and shared way, overcoming the eclecticism typical of current planning theory.

The distinctive contribution of this book is a documented critique of the eclecticism and abstraction of the main international trends of current planning theory. The dialogical relationship with the traditions of architecture and public policy is proposed here in order to critically review planning theory and practice. The outcome is the proposal of a paradigmatic framework that, in the authors’ opinion, can adequately guide reflections and actions. A pragmatic and interpretative heritage and the project-orientated approach are the basis of this new spatial planning paradigm.