Life among urban planners : practice, professionalism, and expertise in the making of the city / edited by Jennifer Mack and Michael Herzfeld.

"The contributors treat planning as a set of critical cultural acts that are both controversial and, in many cases, contested. Planning-and, as this volume places in focus, planners-can then be considered in relation to the social dynamics of the contexts in which they operate: in the planning office, on construction sites, in sometimes violent confrontations with those at whom they are directed. What roles do planners have in shaping the social dimensions and daily practices of urban life? How do they employ, manipulate, and reshape the expertise assigned to them for that purpose? The essays here critically examine what planners' persistent commitment to thinking about the future means for the ways in which people live in the present and represent and preserve the past. We are particularly concerned with the social contexts in which planners produce their work, including their cultural values, personal assumptions, social pressures, and beyond"-- Provided by publisher.