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Folks, 
 
On Sat, 22 Feb 1997, Ray Bromley [Geography and Planning, SUNY at Albany] 
asked: 
 
> [most deleted] 
> What happened to national planning? 
 
First, regarding academic organization: 
To what extent did planning migrate to departments of geography (eg, Clark 
University), programs in city and regional planning (eg, Harvard's Schools 
of Design and Public Administration), and institutes for international 
development?  Is regional economics mainly in the geography departments 
because it is regional?  Or because it has ideological commitments that 
the mainstream in economics departments will not tolerate? 
 
So, writings --or informal observations-- on the recent history of Ray's 
academic field, Geography, may be a valuable source here.  Is there more 
regional economics in the geography department today than in 1950, 
relative to regional paleobotany? 
 
> *   What are the best writings by economists and historians of economics 
>      which might help me to interpret the fate of national planning? 
 
For writings *about economics*, albeit not by historians of economics, 
consult the press coverage of the Nobel Prizes awarded to Hayek and Coase. 
Lewis, too, for contrast.  In USA, see Barron's, Forbes, The Wall Street 
Journal, and daily newspaper coverage by David Warsh (Boston Globe and a 
subscriber here) and Robert Samuelson (New York Times).  For Coase, you 
will find the Prize interpreted as his due qua Prophet of Privatization. 
 
(Of course, I don't mean to prejudge that news and editorial coverage of 
the Prizes, or citations by the Prize committee, correctly identify the 
most important causes of change in the discipline.) 
 
> *   Is the fate of broad-scale regional planning somehow tied to that 
>      of national economic and social planning? 
 
I don't think so.  Relying on newspaper and newscast coverage, it seems to 
me that regional or at least state/provincial planning is a going concern 
in New England and Maritime Canada.  Planning commissioners cannot escape 
the regional press (The Boston Globe in eastern N.Eng.) and a governor 
(Weld in Mass.) cannot glibly write off planning on ideological grounds 
without bearing some heavy political losses.  So we have a so-called 
libertarian governor who cultivates an image as a doer regarding big local 
projects like a convention center and a sports stadium --or Boston harbor 
cleanup for his predecessor. 
 
----Paul 
 
Paul Wendt, Watertown MA 
HES assistant editor 
 
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