Continuity and Change in Regional Planning and Policy: Scholarship in the Style of William Alonso

Commitment to regional policy analysis and counsel has long been a hallmark of leadership in regional science. In this article, the author traces the rise and disillusionment with development economics and its concern with backward regions, the emergence of deindustrialization as a regional challenge, opposing trends toward devolution and nation building, the rise of environmental concerns, and the resurgence of interest in metropolitan planning as successive high-water marks in regional policy making. Reflecting on the work of William Alonso, the author shows how a major theoretician in regional science bent his sights on the important policy issues of his times, evaluating options and forecasting new developments. While the objects of concern have changed, the author documents continuity in Alonso’s zest for the knottier policy issues in the field of regional analysis and his contributions to each.