Peter Self

Peter John Otter Self (7 June 1919 – 29 March 1999) was an English journalist, academic, planning policy-maker and university teacher of planning.

Self was born in Brighton, to Audrey (Otter) and Henry Self, a civil servant. Self was educated at Lancing College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In the Second World War, he was a conscientious objector, working on a farm. In his academic career, he became Professor of Public Administration at the London School of Economics, where he was a prominent member and leader of its Greater London Group research centre. He was also a prominent member of the Town and Country Planning Association. He then became Professor of Urban Research at the Australian National University. He died in Canberra on 29 March 1999.

He was the father of Jonathan Self and Will Self.