Great Planning Disasters
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What happens when grand ambitions collide with catastrophic miscalculation? Great Planning Disasters chronicles some of the most spectacular failures in modern urban and infrastructure planning, from the ill-fated Concorde supersonic airliner and the abandoned London motorway network to the Sydney Opera House and the San Francisco BART system. Peter Hall, one of Britain's foremost urban geographers, dissects each case with surgical precision, presenting a compelling argument that these disasters were not merely the result of incompetence, but of systemic flaws in the political, economic, and bureaucratic processes that govern large-scale public projects. Hall's rigorous analytical framework draws on a wealth of case studies to illustrate how optimism bias, poor forecasting, and institutional inertia conspire to doom ambitious ventures before they ever reach completion. His work stands as a landmark contribution to the fields of urban planning and public policy, written with a clarity and wit that makes it as accessible to the general reader as it is essential to the academic. For anyone who has ever wondered why the most ambitious plans so often end in ruin, Hall's forensic account offers a deeply unsettling — and thoroughly riveting — answer.
Author: Peter Hall
Format: Paperback
Genre: Politics & law
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What happens when grand ambitions collide with catastrophic miscalculation? Great Planning Disasters chronicles some of the most spectacular failures in modern urban and infrastructure planning, from the ill-fated Concorde supersonic airliner and the abandoned London motorway network to the Sydney Opera House and the San Francisco BART system. Peter Hall, one of Britain's foremost urban geographers, dissects each case with surgical precision, presenting a compelling argument that these disasters were not merely the result of incompetence, but of systemic flaws in the political, economic, and bureaucratic processes that govern large-scale public projects. Hall's rigorous analytical framework draws on a wealth of case studies to illustrate how optimism bias, poor forecasting, and institutional inertia conspire to doom ambitious ventures before they ever reach completion. His work stands as a landmark contribution to the fields of urban planning and public policy, written with a clarity and wit that makes it as accessible to the general reader as it is essential to the academic. For anyone who has ever wondered why the most ambitious plans so often end in ruin, Hall's forensic account offers a deeply unsettling — and thoroughly riveting — answer.