| Summary: | This paper honors the memory of Professor John Friedmann by reflecting on his professional
contributions in two ways. First, the paper provides an overview of Friedmann’s career as a
planner and planning academic, which spanned six decades and three continents, and
highlights how a confluence of factors led to a paradigm shift in his thinking regarding the
role of planning in social transformation. Second, the paper assesses Friedmann’s position
on three issues of importance for practitioners—namely, problem formulation, the role of
technical knowledge, and organizational learning. The paper concludes that the
establishment of UCLA’s planning program is a testament to Friedmann’s critical view of
planning practice, which posed fundamental challenges to conventional thinking. His
publications were more inspirational than pragmatic, but they will continue to influence
planning deliberations, as normative ideas underpin most planning efforts.
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