The editors of Town Planning Review (TPR) have selected the following paper as the Featured Article in TPR 96.2

It is available to read for free for a limited time:

Imperial and colonial amnesia of European planning academics – the case of AESOP’s eurocentrism by Ben Davy

From the editors:

It is our privilege as Co-Editors of Town Planning Review to write this short blog post in relation to the featured article in Issue 96.2 of the journal – Ben Davy’s posthumously published Viewpoint Imperial and colonial amnesia of European planning academics – the case of AESOP’s eurocentrism. Our colleagues’ obituary to Ben sums up very well his huge contribution to Planning scholarship and to TPR, so we will not here repeat those words.

Instead, we will concentrate on highlighting some particular points of interest in Ben’s Viewpoint, which tackles an important and perhaps neglected aspect of Planning scholarship – what he described as “imperial and colonial amnesia”, and “Eurocentrism”. It is typical of Ben that he was unafraid to tackle, head on, what he perceived as a lacuna in the work of Planning academics working in and on Europe – reflection on the imperial and colonial past of European cities. His Viewpoint is bracing in its critique of those academics. As Editors, when reviewing Ben’s submission, we did pause to consider whether it was appropriate for us to publish something so unequivocally critical, but we concluded that doing so was exactly the function of an academic journal like Town Planning Review. We anticipate in due course publishing responses to Ben’s Viewpoint, and the special issue of TPR which Ben had begun to convene, work which is being carried on by Sebastian Dembski, may be one place where such responses can find a home.

We are happy that Town Planning Review is a home for a range of views and perspectives on all aspects of Planning research and practice, and hope that others, particularly early-career planning scholars who Ben was so keen to encourage, will continue to contribute their work to this journal.

Read the full article here.

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