Contents: 1. Man in his Ecological Setting. 2. Modifying Actions and the Environment. 3. Location Theory: A Foundation for Planning. 4. The Guidance and Control of Change: Physical Planning as the Control of Complex Systems. 5. Planning as a Cyclic Process. 6. Goal Formulation: Identifying Objectives. 7. System Description: Information Needs. 8. System Simulation: Forecasting and Modelling. 9. Plan Formulation: Charting Possible Courses of the System. 10. Plan Selection: Choosing the Desired Course. 11. Plan Implementation: System Guidance, Control and Review. 12. Implications of a Systems Approach to Planning. A textbook to introduce new developments to new students and old planners was clearly needed; we are fortunate that one of the most able of British academic planners took on the task. McLoughlin has been outstandingly successful in writing a clear and comprehensive account of the systems approach to planning. He particularly deserves to be congratulated on his lively and unpretentious style: a wider public may thus be encouraged to learn more of the planners’ new tools. Books such as this may do more for public participation in planning than many a shrill pamphlet.’