prepared by dr. hazem abu-orf urban planning of arabic cities urban planning, its theory &...

Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf

Urban Planning of Arabic Cities

Urban Planning, its theory & Development


Theories of Planning

System & Rational Theories of Planning

Planning in the 1960s was largely a matter of system analysis using PC technologies and mathematical modelling of urban form as a response to the physical design of cities (Chadwick, 1971; Mcloughlin, 1969): The reality was seen as a ‘system’ in which its parts enable us to understand how the system functions within its larger whole.

The rational process of planning drew a distinction between planning process & the object that planning deals with (Faludi, 1973): RP indicates a planning process carried out in a linear process defining goals; arriving at policy alternatives, the quantitative evaluation of means and their likely outcomes and lastly implementation of decisions.

Planning at early post-war period was best understood as primarily analysis based on scientific methods, such as cost-benefit analysis for evaluating alternative plans on the assumption that these techniques could possibly offer the right answer (Taylor, 1998): a value-free planning process of means and ends.


Political Views of Political Views of PlanningPlanning

The view of planning as essentially political rather than technical in nature, values rather than ‘facts’ are the criteria by which possible course of actions are made.

Schools of thought adopting a Schools of thought adopting a political view of urban planning:political view of urban planning:

1. Lindblom’s Disjointed Incrementalism2. Advocacy Planning3. The Critical Marxist View of Planning4. Contemporary Social Planning Theory


IncrementalismIncrementalism It argues for a pluralist idea where a number of

vague interests are all bargaining to have their value expressed in a political process implying that knowledge serves a means to justify a particular value;

The methods employed are based on trial and error learning; and

Decisions heavily rely on lessons that planners learnt from past experience on which basis their knowledge is developed of that experience.


Planners as Planners as AdvocatesAdvocates

The approach drew on a pluralist view of a society within which there are different interest groups and argues that they can not all be represented by objective, rational and welfare-maximising planner (Davidoff, 1965). It raises the question: what is the proper model for a decision-making?

It recognises that planning process as having distributional consequences where conflicting interests can not necessarily be reconciled by some kinds of technical knowledge; and

The key concern is who is to be heard? Whose interests are to be considered? What criteria are to be chosen to judge the proposal? And what purposes to be fulfilled?


Marxist Marxist Perspective of Perspective of PlanningPlanning

The key idea is that planning is carried out by the state - also known as ‘structuralism’ - to adjust crisis in the functioning of the capitalist economic system (Hay, 1995): it potentially seeks to sustain capitalism and convince others that it is acting on their behalf, particularly in public participation, while in reality planning is merely a façade for powerful interests;

Accordingly, planning is structured by a capitalist rationality where planners are both perceived as aware about the real functioning of capitalism, social reproduction and their role in it and they do not define the existing capitalist social order. Rather, planners seek to clear the path for it by anticipating the problems and working through their professional and public interest role to avoid them (Harvey, 1985).


Social Theory of Planning

It is an alternative approach to structuralism taking the polar extreme on focusing on individual actions and the micro-politics of interaction (Clock et al., 1991).

It builds on the recognition that knowledge and value do not just have an objective existence. Rather, both are actively constituted through social interactive process (Hoch, 1984).

Planning is accordingly a social process in which ways of thinking, valuing or acting are of key concern.


Understanding Urban Planning

By considering planning as being a social process, planning is then an interaction in which different agents collaboratively organise their ideas and interests.

Closely related, planning is concerned with shared meanings through which agents move away from competitive interests represented in the plans towards practices of transforming knowing and acting;

The analogy between science & urban planning has to be treated carefully as Taylor (1998:82) noted that:

Science is concerned with describing and explaining aspects of the world as a mater of fact. Town planning seeks to be prescriptive because it is concerned with intervening to change some aspects of the world to improve it. Planning is therefore engaged in altering given facts. Scientific methods describes and explains the phenomena affecting the environment but town planning is concerned with trying to alter the facts…


Next Steps

1. Key Characteristics of Arabic Cities in terms of their Urban Patterns

2. Policies Adopted in Urban Renewal

3. Issues Facing Planners in Conservation, Rehabilitation Regeneration & Urban Renewal of Arabic Cities

prepared by dr. hazem abu-orf urban planning of arabic cities urban planning, its theory &...

Documents