CHAPTER 8: SETTLEMENT AND NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING AND DESIGN AND DESIGN
8.2 Evolution of settlement planning
Modern town planning, sometimes called country planning, defined as "the art and science of ordering the use of land and the character and siting of buildings and communicative routes" originated partly in response to the overcrowded, unhealthy industrial cities of the nineteenth century (Taylor, 1998, 6). As Taylor (1998) observed, although planning activities may greatly affect the realisation of economic, social and political ends, it is primarily concerned with land use and the physical environment.
Urban planners stand accused of exacerbating social and environmental conditions, such as car-dependence, poor local accessibility and social exclusion, which are the factors negatively affecting urban life (Marnot & Wilkinson, 1998; Barton & Tsourou, 2000). Current planning is based on the policies that encourage the State to become ideologically conservative and more subservient to the needs and demands of capital, turning away from the simultaneous pursuit of both economic growth and welfare.
Moreover, as Beauregard (1989) has argued, everywhere in Europe the proponents of the Welfare-State project seem to be ideologically in crisis, confused and internally divided (Beauregard, 1989).
The 1980s witnessed a general process of industrial restructuring throughout the world (Priore & Sabel 1984; Albrechts & Swyngedouw, 1989; Amin, 1994). There are several versions explaining this round of restructuring. A dominant interpretation, however, is that the Fordist mode of development based on an international spatial division of labour in the industrial realm and on regular state intervention resulting in the building of the Welfare State, has been superseded by a post Apartheid, more geographically open and market-based mode of production founded on a growing and all encompassing flexibility (Albrecht & Swyngedouw, 1989). During the 1980s and 1990s, mainstream planning was basically aimed at smoothing the negative implications of
uncontrolled economic development and was concerned with optimising the environmental conditions for an ever-widening economic expansion.
Under the spell of neo-liberalism, planning became increasingly associated with inefficiency, regulation and excessive cost, hindering individual freedom and the functioning of a free market economy. Neo-liberals and conservatives assumed that the economic factors spontaneously develop towards an optimal state of affairs or, if this would prove to be only partially true, then only very limited state intervention is desirable. Procedural rationality and formal efficiency gained in respect of the disadvantage of substantive and normative rationality, which deals with the questions as to what planning is all about, who profits from it, what kind of society planners really help to plan and where the societal responsibilities lie. As a consequence of this proceduralist approach, planning came more than ever under the spell of technical and positivistic reasoning (Harvey, 1997; Swyngedouw, 1987).
As during the high tide of Fordism, many people were able to improve their condition of living as now an underclass was emerging (Gans, 1991). Underclasses were emerging especially in poor regions and cities leading further to the satisfaction of poor and rich regions (Wilson, 1991). Another related problem concerned the rebirth of nationalism, an ideology that again gains respectability everywhere (Gellner, 1983; Hobsbawn, 1992). This ideology couples itself to the economic restructuring and changed ideological outlook. In fact, nationalism aims to spreads negativity and to direct widespread discontentment towards the weakest parts of society, such as the 'ethnic' minorities, the disadvantaged, the unemployed and the excluded. Political activities move away from the traditional, political representational institutions to the spheres, which traditionally were not considered political such as the mega-enterprise, high-tech research and the media (Seck, 1988; Huyse, 1994). The ability of the capital to circulate globally redefined and weakened the role of traditional state-based politics (Offe, 1984; Castells, 1989).
Planning has become so complex that planners cannot keep up with it. Planning protrudes in so many directions; the planner can no longer discern its 'shape' (Wildavsky, 1973). However, Wildavsky warned, if planning is everything, then maybe it is nothing. Most planners have not left the modernist mode of thinking, but often seem to be engaged in an enterprise, which on the theoretical level, consists of a rather associative and intuitive made-up mix of both modernist and post-modernist insights, some of which even contradict each other. It will be necessary to take post-modern
objection seriously and to incorporate these views substantially and systematically in the planning theory (Wildavsky, 1973).
Critical planning theory, communicative planning and radical planning are related. They are concerned with equity, the distribution of power in society and the extent to which planning reflects this distribution (Friedmann, 1987). Hillier (1993), explains practical reasons for planning decisions should involve the Aristotelian notions of persuasion, reflection upon values, prudential judgment and free disclosure of ideas (Forester, 1989). Only when each community involved listens to others and recognises the legitimacy of the different perspectives, a level of shared understanding can be reached in which areas of congruence or overlapping qualities can be discovered. For Hillier, rational debate is possible between proponents of different truths, provided that their system of thought intersect at some point and that the instrumentalism of 'expert culture' (Dryzek cited in Hillier, 1993) is not overpowering.
One important consequence of the search for sustainable urban development has been a resurgence of interest in compact city theories and policies. While there have been a number of attempts to define and clarify the concept of the compact city and its relationship to sustainable urban development, it is possible to offer a tentative and composite definition of a contemporary compact city that aims to strengthen urban, economic, social and cultural activities in pursuit of environmental, social and global sustainability benefits derived from the concentration of urban functions.
The current resurgence of interest in policies for compact cities dates from late 1980s and has largely been propelled by the search for the global sustainability goals on climatic change and resources used as embodied in the Brundtland Commission Report (WCED, 1987) and the UNCED Agenda 21 proposals (1993). Interest in compact city policies over the last ten years has almost been exclusively limited to the experience of developed countries such as the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia.
There are a number of reasons for encouraging interest in the compact city debate in developing countries. Perhaps most immediate is the global scale of the environmental problems to which the policies are addressed.
Given the fact that less than a third of the world's population live in developed countries, a proportion, which is set to decline further, it is clear that the success or failure of these policies will depend on their simultaneous application in developing countries. The impact of inadequate environmental infrastructure and services on the
health and productivity of the urban poor has been recognised along with the socio- economic impacts of environmental degradation in poor neighbourhoods. The question of how to bring the urban poor and the not so poor into the range of effective demands capable of improving the coverage and maintenance of urban infrastructure and services has proven to be particularly intractable.
Although some proponents of sustainable urban development (Cohen, 1996) and global cities (Sassen, 1991) identify a tendency towards 'urban convergence' and 'globalisation' as a homogenising force, it seems more likely that the formulation of successful compact city policies will be based on recognition of this differentiating dynamic. Differences may manifest themselves in all aspects of urbanisation and urban development process and this in turn has a bearing on the applicability and viability of compact city policies in developing countries (Burgess et ai, 1997).
The lack of empirical data on existing density levels and trends, and a lack of clarity on what are the most appropriate indicators to measure them, poses a problem for the assessment of densification policies for cities in developing countries. However, the levels and rates of economic and social development are the most important issues.
Indeed, the failure of the rate of economic development to match the rate of demographic growth can only lead to the deterioration in all aspects of sustainability (UNDP, 1992; Satterthwaite, 1999).
The first call for greater urban compaction was made almost 25 years ago (Dewar, 1975) and grew increasingly vociferous from the late 1980s onwards. In 1995, the State formally committed itself to compaction policies with the publication of the Development Facilitation Act (Republic of South Africa, 1995). The first chapter of this Act defines a set of principles that must be considered in all land development decisions. Inter alia, paragraph [3] (1 )(c) (vi) is intended to discourage the phenomenon of sprawl in urban areas and contributed to the development of more compact towns and cities.
The South African NHP promotes low-density forms of development. The Government use of the one-off capital grant tied to the freestanding single-storey residential unit as the overwhelmingly dominant policy instrument promotes large, mono-functional mass housing projects. Furthermore, certain Provincial Housing Departments only allocate subsidies to houses developed on minimum plot sizes (commonly between 300 and 450m2), a restriction, which contradicts the legislated calls for compaction.
According to Taylor (1998), it should be noted that from it's beginning until World War II, planning activities focused on the physical environment and was an extension of architecture activities. Only after World War II, did planning start to escape from architecture and experienced, what Taylor describes as a paradigm shift. Two paradigm shifts were identified. Primarily, town planning shifted from design to science and secondly from the town planner being viewed as a technical expert to now being viewed as 'communicator'. The latter shift outlines the role of communities in the physical environment, in this case neighbourhood. Planners should communicate and engage with residents and design neighbourhood and housing projects the way inhabitants would like it to be. A shift from the modernity theory to post modernity has also influenced planning activities, especially the way to design neighbourhoods and housing projects.
8.2.1 Modern and Post-Modern Theory
Modernist thinkers consider themselves to be the inheritors of the philosophy of 'Enlightenment'. Modernists consider it their task to develop theoretical knowledge that
can be of practical use. Rationally, by the way of critique, it can be proved that certain ruling conceptions, scientific statements or popular beliefs are one-sided or even fundamentally wrong, this is to say, counterproductive (Boehm, 1977; Sachs, 1995).
Underlying modernism was a more fundamental, intellectual orientation involving reliance upon reason and science. Taylor (1998) describes modernity as an optimistic belief that, through rational analysis and greater scientific understanding, human beings could create a better world for themselves. In this sense, referring to modern thinking, the planning of physical environment (cities, neighbourhoods and housing) should be driven by the use of rationality only. Cultural values should not according to modernist projects direct or guide the exercise of planning activities. The question that arises from modernist belief of reason is whether the physical environment designed reflects the will of residents and supports their livelihood strategies and contributes to their happiness. As Taylor (1998) observes, the high-rise housing estates built all over Europe and North America under the influence of modernism believed to have long been fiercely criticised as soulless and inhumane environments.
South African town planning is a mixture of both the American and the British town planning system using modernist concepts that placed emphasis on land control and zoning regulations in the built environment. During the Industrial Revolution the