摘要：1had sorne difficulty at the outset with this book because the title had Ied me to expect a work on the evaluation phase of the planning process; i.e., the stage of assessing the implications of alternative courses of action prior to decision. The subtitle -Approaches tu Policy Analysis -is better. ln fact the question addressed is "Why isn't planning more effective and how can we understand it better and thus improve it?", and there is a strong emphasis on implementation and on evaluative research on the process itself. It should also be said immediately that "urban planning" refers not narrowly to the traditional production of area plans but to planning applied broadly to urban programs. As such the book should appeal to regional and policy scientists as weil as to urban and regional planners. This volume contains fourteen papers presented at a workshop at the University of Sheffield in 1982. Very broadly, it contains two kinds of papers: those dealing with the purposes of planning; and those dealing with the methods of urban planning, especially with implementation processes. Thus they range in substance from abstract and general theories to narrow empiricism. Three of the authors are American -none of them, apparently, from urban planning as such (although Golan's contributions to that field are weil known); ail but three of the others are teachers of urban and regional planning in English universities.
