Metropolitan Planning and Development

This note discusses research strategies for an investigation of urban development and planning in the Stockholm region during the period 1945-1980. The intellectual point of departure for this investigation is in polemics with traditional planning theory. As opposed to that tradition we believe that you can say very little about the role of official planning if you don't study its effects. In order to deal with this problem you have to have a clear understanding of the phenomenon of urban development. Official planning is simultaneously a part of, shaped by, and a mechanism in urban development. This proposition leads to the field of urban research, a field which internationally has undergone flourishing theoretical reorientations during the last decade. By underlining and commenting on central problems in urban research, we hope to lay foundations for a broader discussion of different strategies for approaching the study of the city under capitalism.