Early Planning Utopias: A Feminist Critique

(Paperback)

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There is little doubt that urban planning has failed women. To extricate the profession from the patriarchy, it is necessary to revisit the preconceptions that underpinned early efforts to envision new cities or improve existing cities. This book discusses and critiques the work of twenty male planning luminaries who proposed urban models, interventions and approaches on both sides of the North Atlantic during the Second Industrial Revolution. The authors argue that these early visions and ideas, presented as emancipatory and even utopian, set European and North American cities (and their colonial counterparts) on an inexorable masculinist path. The book also highlights the work of several female activists and reformers from the same era, many of whom strove to create better built environments for women, though they rarely envisioned full-blown urban utopias or produced extensive writings on planning issues.

Author Bio

Dorina Pojani is an Associate Professor of urban planning at The University of Queensland.

Catherine Keys is a Senior Lecturer in architecture at The University of Queensland and a practicing artist.

Rory Little is an urban planning student at The University of Queensland, Australia.