Jane Jacobs: her life and work

Abstract

In April 2006, Jane Jacobs—analyst of cities—died. As written in the Financial Times obituary of 27 April 2006 “She spent much of her career fighting for one deceptively simple principle: leave cities alone and let them develop by themselves”. In spring 2004 Gert- Jan Hospers visited Jane Jacobs in her Toronto home and conducted lengthy interviews with her about her beliefs, life and work. A future article based on this now invaluable material has been commissioned by European Planning Studies. However on the sad occasion of her death, and with the work of transcribing interview material underway, it seemed appropriate to create an account of key observations made by Jane Jacobs in that interview to explain her philosophy and practice more clearly than occurs in her always readable and influential books. As an early, maybe the first, evolutionary urban economist and modern inventor of the concept of “social capital”, it is especially appropriate to include this obituary in the journal, which has always been a welcoming host to literature composed from such perspectives.