Rationality, Reason and Regionalization

The term “region” has both emotional and political appeal. Emotionally it can evoke sentiments of “at homeness”, security, and cultural identity; politically it can connote empire, spatial organization and decentralized administration. In the postwar crusade of applied social science, the regional concept has enjoyed an impressive mileage. Despite all its conceptual and analytical elusiveness it remains unrivalled, with the possible exception of its twin “community”, as a powerful myth in contemporary life.

To future generations the story of mid-twentieth-century regional planning should make dramatic reading. To a “Humpty Dumpty” world reeling from the shock of war and uneasy with “inefficiency” and poverty, applied science offered promise for revitalizing the social and technical order. A priesthood of experts rekindled the Wester world’s waning faith in rationality and fashioned a utopian kingdom where both socialism and liberalism could reign.