The book proposes a set of original contributions in research areas shared by planning theory, architectural research, design and ethical inquiry. The contributors gathered in 2010 at the Ethics of the Built Environment seminar organized by the editors at Delft University of Technology. Both prominent and emerging scholars presented their researches in the areas of aesthetics, technological risks, planning theory and architecture. The scope of the seminar was highlighting shared lines of ethical inquiry among the themes discussed, in order to identify perspectives of innovative interdisciplinary research. After the seminar all seminar participants have elaborated their proposed contributions. Some of the most prominent international authors in the field were subsequently invited to join in with this inquiry.

Claudia Basta teaches "Network Infrastructures and Mobility" at Wageningen University. Between 2009 and 2011 she worked as Coordinator of the 3TU Centre of Excellence for Ethics and Technology of Delft University, where she completed her post-doc research on the shared areas of investigation between risk theories, planning theories and ethical inquiry. Her main research interests concern the matter of assessing and governing technological risks in relation to sustainable land use planning. She wrote a number of journal articles and contributions to collective books on these themes.

Stefano Moroni teaches Land use ethics and the law at Milan Politecnico. His main research interests concern planning theory and ethics. He is the author of a number of books and journal articles. Recent publications (as co-author): "Contractual Communities in the Self-Organizing City" (Springer 2012).

This book addresses the social, functional and symbolic dimensions of urban space in today's world. The twelve essays range from a conceptual framing of the issues to case descriptions, rich with illustrations. Together they provide a thorough exploration of the nature and significance of social space and particular aspects of its distribution in today's urban spaces and the various factors that are competing for it. The book addresses a topic that is intrinsically interdisciplinary. Questions of space are examined from a rich variety of perspectives from urban planning to political philosophy, shedding some light on this shadowy process. Some of the issues addressed include the dichotomies of public and private space, discussion of rights and duties regarding the use of space, and conflicts over its allocation. Well-reasoned and lively discussions are offered from the perspective of basic values and rights. The recognition of the specifics of (minority community) identity as an institutional policy is raised in opposition to "abstract distributive accounts of justice" - economic pressures by developers and would-be gentrifiers.

This is a wonderfully subversive book that should be essential reading for all students of urban planning. Cities evolve under the influence of multiple individual land development plans. Coordination between these can happen to varying degrees, at various spatial scales, under the leadership of different organisations and through multiple mechanisms. Planning education and practice has by and large missed this point for over half a century. We need a new knowledge-base for city-shaping in the 21st century and this book lays some of the essential foundations.' - Chris Webster, University of Hong Kong'Not so very long ago the notion of private city planning would have been of interest to only a few die-hard libertarians. This book shows why no serious analysis of the forces shaping cities across the world today can neglect the role of private planning and the potential it might have to deliver more live-able urban places.' - Mark Pennington, King s College, University of London, UK Through comprehensive case studies of privately planned cities and neighborhood in Asia, Europe and North America, this book characterizes the theoretical basis and empirical manifestations of private urban planning. In this innovative volume, Andersson and Moroni develop an under-studied aspect of urban planning and re-evaluate conceptions of our urban future. Urban planning is often construed only as a form of public planning. This misinterpretation is revealed through an empirical focus on how cities have been planned in the past and how the capacity of private actors will shape planning in the future. Private planning is responsible for most small-scale infill developments, ranging from single-family housing to hotels. However, examples of non-governmental actors that plan larger areas, such as homeowners' associations in the United States and private cities in India, are becoming manifest. Private urban planners are guided by price signals to supply infrastructure and regulations that make land more valuable. Using analytical tools from theoretical traditions such as Austrian and new institutional economics, the contributors to this book eschew the mainstream assumptions that underlie much of the critique of profit-seeking entrepreneurship among urban planners, sociologists and geographers. This volume will be invaluable for urban planners. Economists in a variety of fields will also be interested in the diverse application of economic theory, including applied urban economists, Austrian economists, new institutional economists and public choice economists. Contributors: N. Alfasi, D.E. Andersson, W.E. Block, E. Buitelaar, W. Cox, F.E. Foldvary, M. Galle, P. Gordon, R.G. Holcombe, L.W-C. Lai, A. Lowi, S. MacCallum, T. Margalit, S. Moroni, R. O'Toole, S. Rajagopalan, N. Sorel, A. Tabarrok

The book proposes a set of original contributions in research areas shared by planning theory, architectural research, design and ethical inquiry. The contributors gathered in 2010 at the Ethics of the Built Environment seminar organized by the editors at Delft University of Technology. Both prominent and emerging scholars presented their researches in the areas of aesthetics, technological risks, planning theory and architecture. The scope of the seminar was highlighting shared lines of ethical inquiry among the themes discussed, in order to identify perspectives of innovative interdisciplinary research. After the seminar all seminar participants have elaborated their proposed contributions. Some of the most prominent international authors in the field were subsequently invited to join in with this inquiry. Claudia Basta teaches "Network Infrastructures and Mobility" at Wageningen University. Between 2009 and 2011 she worked as Coordinator of the 3TU Centre of Excellence for Ethics and Technology of Delft University, where she completed her post-doc research on the shared areas of investigation between risk theories, planning theories and ethical inquiry. Her main research interests concern the matter of assessing and governing technological risks in relation to sustainable land use planning. She wrote a number of journal articles and contributions to collective books on these themes. Stefano Moroni teaches "Land use ethics and the law" at Milan Politecnico. His main research interests concern planning theory and ethics. He is the author of a number of books and journal articles. Recent publications (as co-author): Contractual Communities in the Self-Organizing City (Springer 2012).

Both "land-use regulation" and "territorial collective services" have traditionally been accomplished in cities through coercive efforts of public administrations. Recently, land-use regulation and collective service provision regimes have emerged within "contractual communities: " territory-based organisations (usually, but not exclusively residential) such as homeowners' associations.

This book examines the problems and opportunities of contractual communities, avoiding both the alarmism and unwarranted apologies found in much of the literature on contractual communities.

The central notion is that cases in which coercive action by a public agency was deemed indispensable have been unjustly overstated, while the potential benefits of voluntary self-organising processes have been seriously understated. The authors propose a revised notion of the state role that allows ample leeway for contractual communities of all forms.