John Friedmann in Vienna

Friedmann responding to a question.

It was a great honor to hear Professor John Friedmann speak at the Technical University of Vienna last week. The lecture was fascinating. Here are some of my notes, they are incomplete and the lecture was so full of information that I am sure I got some of it wrong. You can get a copy of the full lecture from the lecture organizer.

Austria-in-the-World: Conversations and Debates about Planning and Development

Friedmann's lecture was structured around nine Austrian "cultural emissaries" who left Vienna for the outside world and directly influenced his thoughts about planning.


The nine are: economists Bertram Hoselitz, Friedrich Hayek, and Joseph Schumpeter; the sociologist Karl Mannheim; Martin Buber, a philosopher and Judaic scholar; Ludwig Wittgenstein, a philosopher of language; Karl Popper, a philosopher of science; Paul Feyerabend, also a philosopher of science and a critic of Popper; and Karl Polanyi, an economic historian and social anthropologist.

Although Friedmann did not agree with all these thinkers, they all influenced his work.


Studies at the University of Chicago


Friedmann studied planning at the University of Chicago between 1949 and 1955. Four Austrians who influenced him there were:

Karl Mannheim

Planning could be thought of as an intellectual pursuit, not just a profession.

Democratic planning could be a 3rd path between totalitarian fascism and soviet communism.

Planning is a condition for democratic life, the national state could and should intervene in the market for the benefit of society as a whole.

Belief in the possibilites of a constructive democratic planning by the state.

Succession Vienna, walking to the lecture.

Friedrich Hayek (The Road to Serfdom)

Social state management is a recipe for disaster.

Strongly opposed to all forms of planning and state intervention.

Planning is a socialist plot.

Hayek's thinking became a model for Margaret Thatcher, his book "a bible she wielded like a battle ax".

Bertram Hoselitz (Economic historian at University of Chicago)

Initiated the multi-disciplinary study of socio-economic development in the US. Founding
editor of the Journal of Economic Development
and Cultural Change (1952).

Focused on the role of cities in economic development: growth pole, world city, urban centered regions.

His work in development studies and the role of cities strongly influenced Friedmann.

Joseph Schumpeter (Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy 1942)

Earlier work had been on the theory of economic development.

Innovation in economic production and the idea of entrepreneurship took off from his work.

Friedmann linked this concept to Hannah Arendt's idea of "action" (handeln in German) by which she meant "setting something new into the world." For Friedmann planning is pragmatic or institutional innovation ... not regulation and control (which is simply administration).


Another of Schumpeter's famous ideas is creative destruction, where the old is destroyed to make room for the new. In this sense innovation is a form of insurgency against the status quo. Friedmann links this idea to entropy and negative entropy (dissipation and articulated growth). According to Friedmann, our nerves have, to date, been calmed by the illusion of universal progress (bought about by innovation), but he pointed out that "'development' in most of the world usually comes with a negative sign."

The idea of negative entropy comes from Erwin Schroedinger: What is life? (1944) another Viennese.

Wanderjahre and UCLA


After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1955, Friedmann worked as a development specialist in South America, South Korea and Japan (Ford Foundation, USAID, etc.). He also taught at MIT and in 1969 started teaching planning at UCLA where he remained until 1996. 

Friedmann's book "Retracking America" was published in 1973. It grew out of his experience working on development in South America, it caused him to re-think the idea of planning.

Friedmann's idea: planning is a relationship between knowledge and action, it requires dialog.

A form of utopian planning based on local citizen participation.

Karlskirche, walking to the lecture.

Martin Buber (Ich und du, 1923)

Friedmann's idea of transactive planning was influenced by the idea of dialogue and mutuality in Buber's book.

He was also influenced by Buber's idea of utopia, but Friedmann believes that utopias need to remain small.
To Friedmann, innovative planning is inconceivable without a utopia in your imagination.

Karl Popper

Critical connection between knowledge and action.

Ultimate certainty (truth) is attainable.

To Friedmann planning = a science but also means being actively engaged in making change, so: ... What knowledge is sufficiently reliable for the practice of planning? How do we get it?

Paul Feyerabend 
Started as a student of Popper, but rejected Popper's idea of certain truth.
Anarchist theory of knowledge.

Methods cannot be prescribed, results are what ultimately matters = pragmatism.

Multiplicity of knowledges, no single objective knowledge.

Idea of social or mutual learning.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (multi-talented rebel without a cause)

Friedmann's book "The Good Society" was directly influenced in content and form by Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus book.

A foundation of thinking about a form of planning not organized by the state.

Moral basis of social practice, ethics.

Karl Polanyi (The Livelihood of Man 1977, link to review)

Friedmann had returned to the more manageable idea of development planning, particularly in the developing world. During the 1980s the idea of large government intervention in development was being replaced (partly as a result of Thatcherism) by the idea of small NGO-based programs. But NGOs cannot deal with the huge structural problems in many developing countries. It was during this period that development planning lost its scheen.

Polanyi's book described development freed from the language of classical economics, ... "Disposable labor is allocated between the production of use values in the moral economy and exchange values in the capitalist economy." Focused on the household as a social institution rather than a utility maximizing individual. Led Friedmann to the concept of social empowerment and a view of poverty defined as a lack of access to the bases of social power (Empowerment: The politics of alternative development).

Some closing thoughts

National boundaries no longer explain much.

Planning is an innovative activity following Hannah Arendt's definition ... innovation is sending something new into the world.

Planning = the relationship between knowing and acting.

Acceleration of human and social change = the acceleration of local history.

Planning is a dynamic pattern of interacting forces, but it's almost impossible to see these forces.

In China planning is more of a ritual activity rather than a guiding force, change is happening too fast for the existing planning structure to keep up.

Planning theory = part of a theory of socio-spatial change ... planning is normative, but history just goes on.

Questions and Answers

Organized civil society = Friedmann's hope for the future.

A tacit knowing is needed, but how do we get it? To Popper knowledge was 'free floating' somewhere above us, if only we could find it.

But, when we do find it, is it true? We know much knowledge today is generated with a point of view (cigarette company funded health research) ... so, what's the truth?

Our interest as planners is to change the world, not to look for the ultimate truth (where ever this ultimate truth is, we can be sure we won't find it).

Knowledge is related to where we stand, knowledge and belief are closely inter-tied.

There is more than one kind of knowledge, who can dismiss knowledge that is based on experience, or religion?

We need to embrace a plurality of knowledges (note plural) to start a conversation on how to change the world for the better.

Principle of dialog won't go by the wayside.

We need to analyze information to understand its meaning.

To gain knowledge we need to work through the differences.

In a city with many differences we can either give up on the idea of common good and everyone can be out for themselves (pure capitalism) or work through our differences (through dialog with planners acting as facilitators). Note that this is a very different role for planning than Master Planning from on high. Example of Vancouver BC waterfront planning process = extensive resident dialog, it was not a plan dropped on the city from heaven.

Planning must be communications-based - why? It's transactive particularly if you want to add other groups to the dialog beyond the state.

Civil society is key. Friedmann hopes for innovation based on ideas coming from civil society. An analysis of needs with a democratic ethos.

Hope for a better world is to learn to live with in our means (Greece is a good example when we don't live within our means) ... this will mean substantial change in the next 50 years.

Cities will always be unjust. Rapid change always generates inequality ... fighting for the ultimately just city is a losing battle. (For example, the UN Millennial goals: only relevant for a static world, but the world is changing too rapidly for these goals, however good they are today. There will always be new inequalities.)

Patsy Healy, (Newcastle University profile) The pragmatist tradition in planning thought (2009) (abstract)

We need to change the question we ask about cities ... in planning we never have enough knowledge, we are always taking risks because we don't know the future ... we need to act on assumptions and then act again after seeing the results.

We need to be practical and we need to PRACTICE

Social learning is a step by step process, taken by different actors.

And then, suddenly, two hours had gone by ... As you can see there were so many interesting ideas it was hard to record them all accurately. I did the best I could but am sure I got some of it wrong. Feel free to add corrections or thoughts in the comments.

Bethlehem Casino

My first professional job was as a management trainee at Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna NY (just outside Buffalo). In June 1981 I was transferred to the Bethlehem Pennsylvania plant, since the company was closing my plant. I lasted about 8 months in Bethlehem before moving on to Boston and Northeastern University. So, I read with interest this story from the NY Times about a new casino that just opened in Bethlehem to take the place of the steel plant. Buffalo also has just opened a new casino - they tore down one of the city's historic grain elevators to build it - that city leaders hope will benefit the economy, but one wonders how large the market for casinos really is and what the real spill-over economic benefits will be as the number of casinos increases.

Future Urban Transport Conference - Göteborg Sweden

I just returned from the 4th Future Urban Transport Conference held in Göteborg. The conference is sponsored by the City of Göteborg, the Volvo Research and Education Foundations and the Volvo company. (The photo above is of the design on the sides of Göteborg's public transport vehicles - they have a great PT system including a new bus rapid transit line.)

The conference was excellent, blending academic research with public policy and business issues. The first day consisted of presentations from academic researchers. Many were from programs sponsored by the VREF and there was a real diversity of ideas and opinions expressed. The conference website shows the schedule with links to the presentations.

One of the most interesting presentations for me was the keynote by Professor Geetam Tiwari who discussed some of the research done at her institute in New Delhi. Her presentation Public Transport Use - Emerging Issues really made you think about some preconceived ideas about public transport (is a new metro the right solution for cities like Delhi? is public transport really safer than alternatives? what are the real equity issues in transport?).

I also really enjoyed Professor Carlos Daganzo's presentation on A Cheap and Resilient Approach to Eliminating Bus Bunching. Professor Daganzo was one of my teachers at Berkeley and he always amazed me by being able to translate very complex mathematical analysis into practical ideas, and even better, to make them easily understandable. As a public transport rider I feel like I am affected by bus bunching every day and so I hope to work with Vienna Transport to test Carlos' idea on my local bus line. I'll keep you updated.

The third presentation that made a big impact on me was by Professor Harry Dimitriou: Mega transport Projects, Globalization and Private Finance: Emerging Challenges for the 21st Century. The topics he raised are especially topical since many policy makers have been operating under the assumption that private finance (e.g. public private partnerships etc.) are the answer to solving our transport infrastructure problems ... but the private finance model seems to have let us down in the last several years, what does this mean? Among the interesting points he made is that the private sector is not necessarily more efficient than the public sector, that finance companies and government can have very different objectives for their assets (financiers may want to churn the asset to generate short term profits, government wants an efficient and sustainable infrastructure solution), etc. Fascinating ideas extremely relevant for today's problems.

I could go on since there were many other interesting papers and discussions. Tomorrow more on the second two days of the conference.

Saving the Auto Industry - Jon Stewart

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
You're Welcome - Auto Industry
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

John Hodgman, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's "You're Welcome" correspondent presents his ideas for saving the auto industry. I really miss the Comedy Channel!

Is management the problem?

Henry Mintzberg, a professor of management studies at McGill University in Montreal, wrote a great article America's monumental failure of management on the current economic crisis that takes a broader view of the problem and its causes. He criticizes the Harvard Business School case study approach among other things and mentions a study he did evaluating the performance of 19 "superstar" HBS graduates (10 led businesses that failed miserably, 4 failed more or less and 5 led businesses that were considered successful ... not a great track record).

I would add former US President George W. Bush, another HBS graduate, as perhaps the best example of failed HBS managers and the bankruptcy in the "American" system of management HBS teaches.

It looks like a tough fight for Vienna Mayor

Last week I noticed the sign "Out with Häupl" appearing at tram stops and subway stations for Vienna's 2010 Mayoral election. The incumbent, Michael Häupl, is from the Social Democrat party. The poster is from HC (Heinz Christian) Strache, a candidate from the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe), one of Austria's far right political parties.

The poster comes right out and says Strache wants: "... jobs for citizens (only), to stop the Islamization and immigration" and blames Häupl for "record criminality, an avalanche of price increases, a wave of unemployment, massive immigration and mosques and minarets." It reminds me of some of the rhetoric behind the scenes in US political campaigns, but I can't remember ever seeing such blatant racism and immigrant bashing on campaign posters in the USA.

While Vienna has had a long history of left leaning governments, many people I talk with are worried. A couple weeks ago Austria held elections in two states (Bundeslander): Carinthia and Salzburg. In both elections the left-leaning parties lost ground and the far right gained. Eva Menasse wrote an interesting analysis of Carinthia's vote: Haider in their hearts that was published in Die Zeit on March 5, 2009. (Haider was formerly a member of the FPOe before starting the (also) far right BZOe party. He was Governor of Carninthia before suffering a fatal car accident in 2008.)

Anyway, given the economic crisis and growing support for right wing parties it looks like a difficult and ugly campaign for Vienna.

Richard Florida on Bailouts and Stimulus

Richard Florida, one of my favorite 'planner economists' has been writing about the bailouts and stimulus plans on his blog in the last couple days. It's particularly good because he addresses several of the questions that always seem to come up regarding his work "everyone can't be in the creative class, what about the others?" etc.

I am especially concerned that we are wasting a great opportunity to create a more future-oriented economy. We should be using the stimulus to move towards a more environmentally and economically sustainable future. Of course, if we don't someone else is likely to do so, as Florida puts it:

The clock of history ticks on. Over time, it tends to leave behind those places who get stuck, get trapped, or try too hard to breathe life back into the old order, neglecting the new one that is emerging. And that’s what really worries me.

5 Ways to Misery

Great video about how to be and stay miserable. The best is at the end,

"Misery loves company, the more you share with others the more you end up having!"

When comedy becomes serious - Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Jon Stewart host of The Daily Show on the Comedy Channel interviewed Jim Cramer from CNBC's Mad Money show last night. A couple weeks ago Stewart said that CNBC, as well as other 'business' oriented TV shows essentially served as cheerleaders for the mindless economic behaviour over the last several years.

Cramer, to his credit I think, agreed to appear on the Daily Show, and Jon Stewart did a fantastic job interviewing him. He nailed his point that journalism is about digging behind the issues, finding out what's going on and pointing out how to improve things - not simply parroting what big CEOs are saying. The clip above is especially devastating - I thought Cramer would start crying after one of the clips.

I don't know what to think when the best journalism today is being done by people like Jon Stewart and the Comedy Channel, but I am glad someone is doing it.

Brûlé: Rail Transport Quality and Market Streets

Tyler Brûlé's weekly column in the Financial Times today World-class city or grim ghost town? addresses two of my favorite subjects: quality in rail transport and vacant storefronts on shopping streets.


First, transport. Brûlé is right-on in his questions about EuroStar and Belgium's rail stations. My favorite Belgium railway story is that in the International Airport - picture thousands of people coming from all over Europe every day to do EU business - the automated ticket machines don't take credit cards (photo above is of the ticket machine, photo on right is of the lines waiting to buy tickets - note they don't even use customer-friendly queuing system).

You can use your VISA card to buy gasoline at every gas station in the world ... when will railways learn?

By the way, I've written a song about the railway ticket machines, music video coming soon!

Second, empty storefronts. Again, Brûlé raises some interesting questions as he praises the large number of home-grown businesses on Lisbon's shopping streets. I have always thought that landlords are short-sited when they throw out solid local businesses in favour of chain stores.

But, crisis brings opportunities. We need to develop business models, call them market 2.0 streets. These streets would be managed using a cooperative approach: say one chain store, five local businesses with the six landlords sharing the profits. Add-in ideas like locally-based programming, extra cleaning and more safety - paid for jointly by the cooperative and we may be on to something.

Better yet, cheap storefronts on these streets for local businesses would be incubators - helping creative people to develop new ideas and products ... real products and services that people need. Could these market 2.0 streets be a path out of today's economic problems?