Planning Without Markets: Knowledge and State Action in East German Housing Construction

The question to be explored in this paper is simple and yet of some theoretical reach: How are the housing needs and the housing preferences of the population taken into account in the construction policies of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), a political economy in which state planning dominates and the role of the market is radically reduced? Answering this question is, given the centrality of housing needs, important for assessing the quality of life in this state socialist society. It may also be instructive for our general understanding of planning systems, specifically of the relation between social knowledge and state action. [...]