Franco Archibugi

The elder brothers of his grandfather's father were Francesco and Alessandro Archibugi, volunteers of the University Battalion of Sapienza and died in defence of the Roman Republic (1849).

As great-grandson, Franco kept their memory alive by participating in the commemorations, also as a member of the National Association of Garibaldi Veterans.

Franco Archibugi (18 September 1926 – 23 November 2020) was an Italian scholar in political, economic and social sciences, university professor in economic policy and spatial planning.

He largely operated in Italy and in international governmental agencies; including in the field of economic development, social welfare and cooperation policy.

Archibugi was the author of several works in planning theory and methodology, and was among the theorists and promoters of a new unitary discipline of planning – the “Planology” – aimed at creating a bridge between the theoretical scientific progress in economics and other social sciences with the actual political and administrative efficiency and management.

After retiring from academia, he was still an active researcher as President of the Planning Studies Centre.

Born in Rome in 1926 and son of the violinist Corrado Archibugi and Adelina Francia, he was the grandson of the art historian Ennio Francia.

He participated in the Resistance with small demonstrative actions such as the throwing of leaflets of socialists in cinemas and with the scattering of four-pointed nails on the Via Flaminia in Rome.

After the liberation of Rome in 1944, he was one of the leaders of the renewed Italian Socialist Youth Federation led by Matteo Matteotti, Leo Solari and Mario Zagari, with whom a long association was born together with his peer Giorgio Ruffolo.

In those years, he also contributed to the foundation of the Italian Section of the Fourth International, together with Giorgio Ruffolo and Livio Maitan.

He had his first job at the Ministry of Reconstruction, collaborating closely with the Minister Meuccio Ruini and with his head of cabinet Federico Caffè, representing Italy in Europe for the implementation of the Marshall Plan.

With Federico Caffè, he maintained a deep friendship until his disappearance.

Student of the Institute of Philosophy of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the Sapienza University of Rome, he had as teacher Guido Calogero and as friends and classmates brilliant young people such as Lucio Colletti, Emilio Garroni, Tullio Gregory and Gennaro Sasso, writing his thesis on German Enlightenment under the guidance of Carlo Antoni.

After the split of the Italian Socialist Party, he joined, together with the entire Socialist Youth Federation, the Italian Liberal Socialist Party (later PSDI) led by Giuseppe Saragat.

He started working at Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions (CISL), collaborating with Pietro Merli Brandini.

After the death of Eugenio Colorni, in 1944, he had a long friendship with Ernesto Rossi, connected to the joint professional commitment for the Italian economic reconstruction and to the common pro-European ideals.

1944–1952: Sapienza University of Rome.

Degree in History and Philosophy.

1947–1950: ISE- BCI- [Institute of Economic Studies.

Rome department]

He was later one of the young officials who initiated the process of European integration as Director General of the European Coal and Steel Community in the late 1950s.

Married to the poet Muzi Epifani in 1953, he had four children with her, Luca, Daniele, Francesca and Albertina.

After the separation, he had a fifth child by Karla Koenig, Mathias, and a sixth child, Alessandro, by his second wife Fulvia Banchi.

Archibugi was one of the promoters of programming in Italy in the 1960s, collaborating closely with Antonio Giolitti and Giorgio Ruffolo.

Professor of Urban Planning, he has taught at University of Calabria, University of Naples Federico II and at National School of Administration (Italy).

After the decline of the experiences of economic planning in Italy (but also elsewhere, in the 1960s and 1970s, whether in developed or developing countries and in the UN activities), Franco Archibugi focused more intensively his attention and energy on the introduction of a unified approach to planning in the educational and academic world; he has been Full Professor at some Italian Universities and finally at the “Scuola Superiore della Pubblica Amministrazione” [Postgraduate School of Public Administration] in Rome.

He has been also active in an international networking of scholars who pursue the same intellectual path towards the integrative, socio-economic, unified planning; and for a new scientific experience – the “planology” (never implemented in its appropriate terms), and which he tried to illustrate like new disciplinary field, autonomous and free from its components disciplines (economics, sociology, physical planning, and so on) in a real meta-disciplinary approach: the ‘planological’ (or ‘programming’) approach.

Franco Archibugi has been member of the Association of European Schools of Planning and active in several of its Congresses, and also at the World Planning Schools Congress (WPSC) and in the activities of the GPEAN (Global Planning Education Association Network).

He has also been associate at the EAEPE (European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy) participating in some of its Congresses.

He was also a member of other academic Italian associations like SIEDS (Società Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica) and SGI, (Società Geografica Italiana); of which he was honorary member, and many others.

Founder in 1963 and President of the Planning Studies Centre, he was among the supporters (and promoters) of a new unified planning discipline.

He contributed to the development of planning techniques in the urban, territorial and economic fields, collaborating with United Nations, the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and with the Nobel Laureates for Economics Jan Tinbergen, Ragnar Frisch, Wassily Leontief and Richard Stone.

Together with Jacques Delors and Stuart Holland he proposed to go beyond capitalist planning.

In recent years, he had worked hard on a massive trilogy on the programmatic approach, published last year by publisher Palgrave Macmillan.

1963–1964: London School of Economics (LSE).

One year Diploma in 'Economics and Social Administration'.

Franco Archibugi has constantly accompanied his technical-professional activities and experiences by research activities (which in their turn resulted in a systematic and scientific concept of planning methodology).

His house outside Rome at Divino Amore, in addition to hosting - since 1981 - the headquarters of the Planning Studies Centre, has been an intense hub of cultural, musical and social life.

Ideally close to the socialist intellectuals, he had progressively distanced himself from the PSI when Bettino Craxi was appointed secretary, so much so that he supported other lists such as that of the Radical Party in 1987 and that led by Massimo Severo Giannini in 1992.

He died in Rome in November 2020 at the age of 94.