Trans-national promotion of British and American planning practice in the 1940s

The political mandate for postwar reconstruction in the 1940s demanded an ideological consensus for state-directed town planning to regulate urban development. Exhibitions showcasing theoretical and practical proposals proved a popular medium for securing that consensus. Of interest here are two travelling exhibitions spreading the message of modern Anglo-American town planning knowledge globally that were staged by the British Council and the US Office of War Information (OWI). These parallel activities represent an early intersection between planning and the geopolitics of "soft-power", which harnessed information and culture for the purposes of international diplomacy and influence. Developed from Australian case studies, this paper shows how the parallel marketing of American site planning and housing alongside British town and country planning helped make a general case for town planning in the post-war world to be adapted to local contexts.