Bent Flyvbjerg is a Danish economic geographer. He is the Villum Kann Rasmussen Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen.

Education and career

Flyvbjerg received his Ph.D. in

urban geography Urban geography is the subdiscipline of geography that derives from a study of cities and urban processes. Urban geographers and urbanists examine various aspects of urban life and the built environment. Scholars, activists, and the public have ...

and planning from

Aarhus University Aarhus University (, abbreviated AU) is a public research university. Its main campus is located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Ut ...

, Denmark, with parts done at the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Ca ...

. He was the first BT Professor and inaugural chair of major programme management at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

Saïd Business School Saïd Business School (Oxford Saïd or SBS) is the business school of the University of Oxford. The school is a provider of management education. Business and management classes started at Oxford in 1965 when the Centre of Management Studies, ...

(retiring from the post in 2021) before coming to IT University of Copenhagen and becoming the chair of major program management there. He was previously a professor of planning at

Aalborg University Aalborg University (AAU) is an international public university with campuses in Aalborg, Esbjerg, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1974, the university awards bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and PhD degrees in a wide variety of subje ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and chair of the department of infrastructure policy and planning at

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

, The Netherlands. He is a fellow of

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. ...

. He was a member of the Danish Infrastructure Commission and a director of the Danish Court Administration. He has written extensively about

megaprojects A megaproject is an extremely large-scale construction and investment project. A more general definition is "Megaprojects are temporary endeavours (i.e. projects) characterised by: large investment commitment, vast complexity (especially in org ...

decision making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either ra ...

, city management, and

philosophy of social science Philosophy of social science examines how social science integrates with other related scientific disciplines, which implies a rigorous, systematic endeavor to build and organize knowledge relevant to the interaction between individual people and ...

. His research falls in three main areas: the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences, power and rationality in decision making, and megaproject planning and management.

Books

*1998 '' Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice'', University of Chicago Press () *2001 '' Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again'', Cambridge University Press () *2003 '' Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition''. Cambridge University Press () *2008
Decision-Making on Mega-Projects: Cost-Benefit Analysis, Planning and Innovation
', Elgar () *201
''Real Social Science: Applied Phronesis'', Cambridge University Press
() *2014
Megaproject Planning and Management: Essential Readings, Volumes I-II
', Elgar () *2017
The Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management
', Oxford University Press () *2023
How Big Things Get Done
', Penguin Random House ()

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flyvbjerg, Bent Danish urban planners Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology Danish geographers Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford Dutch urban planners Living people Philosophers of social science Philosophers of technology Academics of Saïd Business School Fellows of St Anne's College, Oxford People associated with Aalborg University Academic staff of the IT University of Copenhagen 1952 births