A critic of the rational theory of urban planning

This essay attempts to examine critically the rational theory of urban planning, the dominant paradigm within American urban planning thought over the past two decades. It distinguishes two basic models within rational theory and discusses them in relation to the normative and pragmatic difficulties that they encounter. The essay concludes that even if rational determination of the ends or means of social action is considered to be desirable, such a process may be both technically unattainable and politically irrelevant.