The social psychologist as planner: the pioneering work of Oscar Oeser in urban and rural communities in mid-twentieth century Australia

Oscar Oeser was a polymath import to the Antipodes, primarily known as a social psychologist and as the founding Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne. But he was also a very effective network builder, and an important conduit for overseas ideas – not least with respect to urban and rural planning. With interest in urban planning surging in the immediate post-Second World War period, Oeser undertook a joint project with the Head of Architecture at Melbourne, Brian Lewis, along with a number of other notable figures. The project involved surveying and re-imagining the down-at-heel suburb of Prahran. It was ambitious in its empirical scope, and it showcased Oeser's sensitivity to the ‘human elements’ in planning that prefigured current participatory models. Nonetheless, the Prahran project's impact was muted and ambiguous, its data selectively co-opted by local politicians and public servants to serve a pragmatic modernist agenda. Oeser's subsequent planning work featured innovative approaches to designing remote rural communities and indigenous housing. Oeser's overall legacy in planning was thus a historically contingent one: it tells us something about what might have been as much as what was.