Shaping the Things to Come: Concepts of Planning and European Modernity

Planning—in the sense of purposive action geared towards the anticipated future—has usually been seen by anthropologists and social psychologists as a characteristic of universal human reason. As a specific socio-political practice and scientific theory, however, historians and social theorists have often identified planning as a specific trait of European (Western) modernity, for better and for worse.

This classic analysis of scientific social and political planning speaks of politicians, revolutionaries, reformers, and scientists infatuated with the success of the natural sciences, dreaming of a brand new world. According to this view, the social sciences would be as closely integrated with politics as the natural sciences had already been adopted by business, medicine, and the military. In some more extreme "technocratic" interpretations, planning and science would eventually replace politics altogether.

Either planning has been seen as a largely technologically determined, if not outright “neutral” response to the complexity of the modern world. Or, more commonly, it has been criticized as a misguided attempt at controlling human relations and social circumstances in the same way as humans have sought to control nature. As such, planning is a key concept in European modernity. However, the many applications and diverse theorization of planning belie any simple categorization, making it an appropriate topic for conceptual historical analysis.

Yet, it is a key concept whose conceptual history is yet to be written. This paper maps out points of disjuncture between the historiography of concepts of planning, such as cybernetics, management, planning, rationalization, social engineering, and technocracy on the one hand, and the actual historical usage of these concepts on the other. Thereby, the paper brings previously isolated historiographical and theoretical strands into dialogue with one another with a view of initializing a new take on “critical planning studies”.