Urban planning is not just about the shaping of floor spaces or building complexes. It also implies promises for a better life. The technological, artistic, political, and social visions of planners and their patrons are related, explicitly or otherwise, to the universal idea of a pursuit of happiness. This does not mean they always match the needs of the people concerned; the inhabitants’ actual usages and appropriations of urban spaces may even undermine their original conceptions. Both “pursuits”—by those in charge and by the users of urban planning projects—are tackled in this volume, which assembles a dozen case studies from various European countries from the Enlightenment to the present.
