Peter John Otter Self (7 June 1919 – 29 March 1999) was an English journalist, academic, planning policy-maker and university teacher of planning.^[1]

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.^[2] He was also a prominent member of the Town and Country Planning Association.^[1] 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.