Spatial planning as a design discipline: a paradigm for Western Europe?

There is an implicit paradigm in the theory of spatial planning, which we call 'spatial planning as a design discipline'. It is implicit in much of planning theory, and the exposition here is in many respects an ordering of ideas from planning theory which have been in circulation for many years. I will make them explicit and relate them to each other in order to lay bare the underlying assumptions, to help planning education, and to improve the relationship between theory and practice. Such an ordering of existing ideas inevitably looks backwards, so I will also investigate how the paradigm presented here relates to some recent innovations in planning theory. Because many of the ideas have been in good currency for a long time, it is probable that they have had a strong influence on planning practice in much of Western Europe: there is not just a paradigm shared by academics but also a discourse shared by academics and practitioners.