In Who Plans? Jane Jacobs’ Hayekian critique of urban planning, Market Urbanism’s Nolan Gray connects the thinking between Jane Jacobs criticism of urban planning in The Death and Life of Great American Cities with Austrian economist FA Hayek’s criticism of central planning.
As summarized by Gray, “Jacobs emphasizes the importance of local knowledge. Where orthodox urban planners assume that the essential information in planning decisions can be gained through abstract principles and statistical aggregates . . . Second, Jacobs knew that decentralized planning was the best way to make the most of local knowledge. Local residents often have the knowledge needed to make wise decisions about urban form.”
The result, according to Gray, is that local knowledge-lead decentralized planning helps create and strengthen the complex relationships and spontaneous order of cities and city neighborhoods.
It’s a good article, but it’s lacking in depth. For one thing, local knowledge can be…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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