From the guttermost to the uttermost and back

Abstract

This article comprises an auto-ethnography of my life’s journey: I entered town planning fifty years ago and am now over seventy. It is a personal testimony of how my social class, gender, religion, education, personal characteristics, family and inner-city background contributed to mutual incomprehension, and not being taken seriously by the planning profession. Planning policies often appear to be based upon an impersonal and generalised view of different social classes and urban areas. Planners need to give greater attention to the embodied and material nature of lived urban experiences, especially in relation to women’s needs, class, ethnicity and bodily characteristics.