Bent Flyvbjerg is Professor of Planning at Aalborg University, Denmark. He holds a concurrent position as Chair of Infrastructure Policy and Planning at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. His books include Making Social Science Matter (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Megaprojects and Risk (Cambridge University Press, 2003), and Rationality and Power (The University of Chicago Press, 1998). Bent Flyvbjerg has developed a research methodology called phronetic social science, which emphasizes a focus on power and values in policy and planning research. He has employed the method in studies of urban policy and planning and of megaprojects. Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition is a book dealing with the risks and legalities of promotion, policy, planning, and construction of megaprojects. ... Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice is a book authored by Bent Flyvbjerg and published by The University of Chicago Press (1998). ... A megaproject is a very large investment project. ...

Bent Flyvbjerg has summarized his studies of rationality and power in urban policy and planning in a number of propositions, for instance (Rationality and Power, Chapter 20): Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice is a book authored by Bent Flyvbjerg and published by The University of Chicago Press (1998). ...

• Power has a rationality that rationality does not know.
• Rationality is context-dependent, and the context of rationality is power.
• Power blurs the dividing line between rationality and rationalization.
• Rationalization presented as rationality is a principal strategy in the exercise of power.
• The greater the power, the less the rationality.

In his studies of megaprojects, Flyvbjerg has uncovered what he calls a "Machiavellian formula for project approval." Project promoters employ this formula – often intentionally, but sometimes also unintentionally – to maximize the likelihood that their projects get funded and built (Megaprojects and Risk, Chapter 1): Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition is a book dealing with the risks and legalities of promotion, policy, planning, and construction of megaprojects. ...

• (underestimated costs) + (overestimated revenues) + (undervalued environmental impacts) + (overvalued economic development effects) = project approval

The formula systematically produces misinformation in policy and decision making, Flyvbjerg argues, where the ideal is informed decisions.

Flyvbjerg (2005) has identified two main causes of misinformation: strategic misrepresentation (lying) and optimism bias (appraisal optimism). Flyvbjerg and his associates have developed methods to curb misinformation focused on improved accountability and reference class forecasting. The methods are being used in practice in policy and planning. A lie is a statement made by someone who believes or suspects it to be false, in the expectation that the hearers may believe it. ... Optimism bias is the demonstrated systematic tendency for people to be over-optimistic about the outcome of planned actions. ... Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. ...

A book about the significance of Bent Flyvbjerg's work, Making Political Science Matter edited by Sanford Schram and Brian Caterino, was published in 2006 (New York University Press).

Bent Flyvbjerg was knighted in 2002.

Sources and further reading

• Bent Flyvbjerg's homepage.
• Bent Flyvbjerg, Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice (The University of Chicago Press, 1998).
• Bent Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again (Cambridge University Press, 2001).
• Bent Flyvbjerg, "Policy and Planning for Large Infrastructure Projects: Problems, Causes, Cures." Policy Research Working Paper, WPS 3781, World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005.
• Bent Flyvbjerg, Nils Bruzelius, and Werner Rothengatter, Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette K. Skamris Holm, and Søren L. Buhl, "Underestimating Costs in Public Works Projects: Error or Lie?" Journal of the American Planning Association, vol. 68, no. 3, Summer 2002, pp. 279-295.
• Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette K. Skamris Holm, and Søren L. Buhl, "How (In)accurate Are Demand Forecasts in Public Works Projects? The Case of Transportation." Journal of the American Planning Association, vol. 71, no. 2, Spring 2005, pp. 131-146.
• Sanford F. Schram and Brian Caterino, eds., Making Political Science Matter: Debating Knowledge, Research, and Method. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

See also

• Bent Flyvbjerg's homepage
• Making political science matter
• Making social science matter
• Megaprojects and Risk
• Phronetic social science
• Rationality and Power