Flyvbjerg, Bent (1952-)

Bent Flyvbjerg is BT professor and chair of Major Programme Management and director of the BT Centre for Major Programme Management at the University of Oxford. He has conducted wide-ranging research in the fields of urban policy and planning, much of which is applicable to students in other disciplines, including public administration and sociology.

According to Flyvbjerg, planning is a quintessential human activity. The ways in which humans plan reveal phenomena that help address some of the most significant issues in political science, including the relationship between rationality and power. His analysis of the famous Aalborg Project—a widely acclaimed scheme to reprioritize road-use and bring about urban renewal in the city—demonstrates how even a technically sound and rational plan can go awry under the influence of political power relationships, despite initial unity of vision among participants. As the project developed, it became apparent that the exercise of power and the protection of special interests were the real objectives of those institutions that were supposed to serve the public interest. Flyvbjerg demonstrates that power defeats rationality, and that power captures rationality, which subsequently becomes an instrument of power. In so doing, Francis Bacon's dictum that knowledge is power is reversed: power is shown to direct the process of knowledge creation; thus, power is knowledge. This finding is of concern to democracies because they are based on the premise that knowledge that is available to all can be used to restrain and direct those with power.

Flyvbjerg sees his analysis of power relationships as providing empirical evidence to support some of the great theories on power posited by thinkers such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Michel Foucault. Flyvbjerg develops his research by looking at the basis on which large infrastructure projects, or megaprojects, are planned. Using data collected from multiple countries over many decades, Flyvbjerg's research reveals that, in most cases, these large projects are approved on the basis of highly dubious or untested claims and that there is a systematic tendency for planners to underestimate the costs of projects and overestimate their benefits. Rather than providing neutral support for policy makers, planners become advocates and, at worst, are deliberately deceptive to ensure the implementation of their projects. Such action is akin to rent-seeking behavior, designed to benefit a few at the expense of the majority.

The solution to this problem is to recognize the mechanisms of power and address them head-on. Democratic traditions emphasizing participation, transparency, and civic reciprocity can be effective in this regard. Flyvbjerg also argues that a reoriented (phronetic) social scientific discipline can contribute much to the practical knowledge of power.