"The Network Society looks the challenges that the new paradigm of the Network Society creates Urban and Regional Planning. Chapters grouped into five themes discuss theoretical and practical perspectives on the contemporary organization of social, economic, cultural, political and physical spaces.
The first section looks at models of the Network Society. The second looks at the impact of physical networks such as transport. The third discusses challenges for Planners raised by society's increased reliance on new technology. The fourth examines local networks including community networks and the possibilities of setting up local networks for disaster recovery. The final part compares spatial and policy networks and looks at the institutions involved.
This book is essential reading for graduate level courses in urban studies, city and regional planning, and urban design. With its clear structure - unitary sections but a diversity of perspectives - the book can be used easily in courses such as Planning Theory, Urban Infrastructure and Public Policy.

Louis Albrechts is professor of planning in the Department of Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Leuven, Belgium. Seymour Mandelbaum is professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, USA

List of figures

List of tables

Contributors

Preface

Introduction: A New Context for Planning?

Louis Albrechts and Seymour J. Mandelbaum

1 The Network Society: A New Paradigm?

1.1 Communicative Action and the Network Society: A Pragmatic Marriage?

Niraj Verma and HaeRan Shin

1.2 Planning and the Network City: Discursive Correspondences

Robert A. Beauregard

1.3 Escaping the Prison of "the Present Place": Can We Plan the Future of Localities in the Context of a Network Society?

Dowell Myers

1.4 The Discourse Network: A Way of Understanding Policy Formation, Stability, and Change in the Networked Polity

Nicholas Low

1.5 Commentary: Networks and Planning Thought

Judith E. Innes

2 Organization of Space and Time

2.1 Impact of Physical Networks

2.1.1 Cities and Transport: Exploring the Need for New Planning Approaches

Luca Bertolini

2.1.2 Networking for Trans-National "Missing Links": Tracing the Political Success of European High-Speed Rail in the 1990s

Deike Peters

2.1.3 Strategies for Networked Cities

Stephen Graham

2.1.4 The "Network City": A New Old Way of Thinking Cities in the ICT Age

Paul Drewe

2.1.5 Commentary

Gabriel Dupuy

2.2 Organization of Space and Time: Challenges for Planning and Planners

2.2.1 Planning as Persuasive Storytelling in the Context of "the Network Society"

James A. Throgmorton

2.2.2 Network Complexity and the Imaginative Power of Strategic Spatial Planning

Patsy Healey

2.2.3 Commentary: Imagining Urban Transformation

Leonie Sandercock

3 Policy Networks and Governance

3.1 Local Networks and Capital Building

3.1.1 Why Liberal Planning Cannot Manage the Network Society: Lessons from Community Action

Howell S. Baum

3.1.2 ICT-Enforced Community Networks for Sustainable Development and Social Inclusion

Klaus Frey

3.1.3 Recovery from Disasters: Challenges for Low Income Communities in the Americas

William J. Siembieda

3.1.4 The Multicultural City in the Age of Networks

Xavier de Souza Briggs

3.1.5 Commentary

Susan S. Fainstein

3.2 Governance Capacity, Policy Networks, and Territorial Specificities

3.2.1 The Global Emergence of Private Planning and Governance

Chris Webster and Shin Lee

3.2.2 Inter-Agency Transport Planning: Cooperation in a Loose Policy Network

Tore Sager and Inger-Anne Ravlum

3.2.3 Collaborative Planning, Commitment, and Trust. Dealing with Uncertainty in Networks

Ronald G.H. van Ark and Jurian Edelenbos

3.2.4 Reconnecting Space, Place, and Institutions: Inquiring into "Local" Governance in Urban and Regional Research

Enrico Gualini

3.2.5 Commentary: Governance Capacity, Policy Networks, and Territorial Specificities

Patsy Healey

Bibliography

Index