Introduction: Planning/resistance

For years urban planning has been understood as a government instrument to rationalize space, populations, and the conduct of residents. This view is consistent with recent discussions of the "post-political" city. As the introduction of the special issue on Planning /Resistance, this paper takes a different view. It examines the politicizing effects of planning. It argues that planning conceives and implements the orderly city by imposing lines and rules that render certain activities illicit and others licit. This effort to divide good from bad conduct, normal from abnormal behavior, results in excluding people who fail to meet dominant norms. The exclusionary lines of urban planning become specific points that often spark resistances. As some resistances (certainly not all) catch fire, they become political conflagrations of people who feel wronged by the denial of equality. Thus, rather than simply evacuating the city of politics, planning generates small and big political resistances by enacting countless dividing lines in the city.