Recently I bought a 2nd hand copy of Jane Jacobs’ 1969 [amazon_link id=”039470584X” target=”_blank” ]The Economy of Cities[/amazon_link], a Pelican paperback edition. I first read it years ago but had somehow lost my copy – or maybe it’s somewhere in the house, just mislaid.

Anyway, this, from the first page:

“We are all well aware … that ideas universally believed are not necessarily true. We are also aware that it is only after the untruth of such ideas has been exposed that it becomes apparent how pervasive and insidious their influence have been.”

The universally believed idea she wants to knock down in the chapter is that city economies evolve at a later stage after rural economies; but I’m not sure it has yet given up the ghost entirely. But her sociology of knowledge is surely spot on, with its account of distinguished experts, career built on the old dogmas,  dismissing bold new claims.

[amazon_image id=”B000TOPA52″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ](The Economy of Cities) BY (Jacobs, Jane) on 1970 (Paperback)[/amazon_image]

Exciting news – the next ‘Perspectives’ title will be launched very soon and it’s Kate Barker on how to tackle the housing market’s problems. Housing: Where’s The Plan? is officially out in a couple of weeks but can be ordered now. Kate, as well as being a former member of the Monetary Policy Committee, wrote two major reports on planning and on housing supply a decade ago, so we are delighted to be publishing her follow-up recommendations.

To quote the blurb from present MPC member David Miles: “No one can speak to the housing supply issues facing the UK with the same authority as Kate Barker. This clear, concise analysis of UK housing issues makes a series of policy recommendations that are both feasible and desirable. An excellent account of the state of UK housing – admirable in its coherence, clarity and precision.”

[amazon_image id=”1907994114″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Housing: Where’s the Plan? (Perspectives)[/amazon_image]

As the book points out, housing policy has multiple aims and there are unavoidable trade-offs. That means no silver bullets. But she does have a list of meaningful policy reforms to suggest.

David Hume, [amazon_link id=”0140432442″ target=”_blank” ]A Treatise of Human Nature[/amazon_link], Book 1, Introduction:

“’Tis evident, that all the sciences have a relation, greater or less, to human nature; and that however wide any of them may seem to run from it, they still return back by one passage or another. Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, are in some measure dependent on the science of Man; since they lie under the cognizance of men, and are judged of by their powers and faculties. ’Tis impossible to tell what changes and improvements we might make in these sciences were we thoroughly acquainted with the extent and force of human understanding, and could explain the nature of the ideas we employ, and of the operations we perform in our reasonings …… If therefore the sciences of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, have such a dependence on the knowledge of man, what may be expected in the other sciences, whose connexion with human nature is more close and intimate?”

In other words, understanding human nature is the foundation of all knowledge. And science needs social science.

[amazon_image id=”1484033590″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]A Treatise of Human Nature[/amazon_image]