The international diffusion of planning: A review and a Canadian case study

Abstract This article notes the different approaches to the international diffusion of planning ideas and practices. It briefly reviews the principal body of work by planning historians to highlight the key themes of such studies. This previous work is then used to develop a simple typology of diffusional episodes, based on the power relationship between the two parties to the diffusion relationship. Thus several forms of imposition and several forms of borrowing are identified. This typology is then used to inform a case study of Canadian planning, focusing particularly on Vancouver. The case study shows how Canada's planning was shaped by recurrent encounters with two major international planning traditions, those of Britain and the US, particularly the latter. These encounters initially resulted in episodes of undiluted borrowing, alternately, from both traditions. Increasingly after 1945, however, these borrowings became more selective, first from Britain and then from the US. By the late 1960s, other international influences were also apparent and Canadian planning exhibited a more synthetic approach, achieving real distinctiveness. Interpretations based on context and the autonomous roles of individuals are considered but greatest emphasis is placed on the role of the reformist and professional milieux in determining the origins and extent of Canadian borrowings. The article concludes by suggesting that the existence, however weak, of such milieux within the country importing planning ideas and practices may be crucial to the distinction between borrowing and imposition.