Why the cities we dream of aren’t always the ones we build

Cities love to call themselves ‘sustainable’, ‘liveable’ or ‘resilient’. But a new book argues those warm, optimistic words can sometimes blur the reality of who benefits - and who gets left behind.

Ideological Fantasies in Planning Theories and Practices, co-edited by Dr Elham Bahmanteymouri and Dr Mohsen Mohammadzadeh from the School of Architecture and Planning, examines the hidden stories that shape how cities are planned in Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad.

Its central point: planning isn’t just guided by data or technical rules. It’s also shaped by the stories we tell ourselves - the fantasies - about what good cities should look like.

"These assumptions quietly shape what problems get attention, what gets funded and which neighbourhoods are left waiting," says Bahmanteymouri.

"Planning concepts are no different. They carry emotional promises about what a ‘good city’ should be."

In psychoanalytic theory, a ‘fantasy’ isn’t a daydream - it’s a deeper narrative that shapes how we see the world.

"They’re the assumptions that organise how we interpret problems, imagine solutions and justify action," she says.

The book builds on the influential work of the late Associate Professor Michael Gunder, a leading New Zealand planning theorist who first brought Lacanian psychoanalysis into planning scholarship. His work revealed how unconscious desires, anxieties, and hidden ideological stories shape the way we think about urban life.

Gunder showed that even ideas that sound purely technical, like ‘sustainable development’, ‘smart growth’ or ‘urban competitiveness’ come with emotional attachments and ideological expectations. A city branded as ‘creative’ or ‘green’ might successfully attract investment, for example, while deeper affordability issues or environmental injustices remain unseen.

For Bahmanteymouri and Mohammadzadeh, the book isn’t anti-sustainability or anti-liveability. It’s a call to look more honestly at what lies beneath the buzzwords.

"These ideas are important. But we need to understand the fantasies behind them - the emotional and ideological forces that shape what planners prioritise. When we don’t, well-intended policies can mask inequalities instead of addressing them."

Five ways planners can look beyond the buzzwords
 

1. Question the story behind the slogan - Ask what assumptions underpin terms like ‘sustainable’ or ‘resilient’.
2. Check who benefits - Consider which communities gain from a policy, and who may be overlooked.
3. Look for invisible narratives - Identify the unconscious ideas and desires shaping planning decisions.
4. Explore alternative perspectives - Include Indigenous and non-Western planning traditions that offer different ways of thinking.
5. Be honest about limits - Accept that not all goals can be achieved perfectly, and plan with conflict and difference in mind.

Ideological Fantasies in Planning Theories and Practices is out now.

Published by Routledge, the book features 13 chapters by 16 international authors and is co-edited by Elham Bahmanteymouri, Mohsen Mohammadzadeh and Jean Hillier.

Available at the University Library and online over the break.