'The planned city sweeps the poor away...': Urban planning and 21st century urbanisation

Abstract

In recent years, attention has been drawn to the fact that now more than half of the world's population is urbanised, and the bulk of these urban dwellers are living in the global South. Many of these Southern towns and cities are dealing with crises which are compounded by rapid population growth, particularly in peri-urban areas; lack of access to shelter, infrastructure and services by predominantly poor populations; weak local governments and serious environmental issues. There is also a realisation that newer issues of climate change, resource and energy depletion, food insecurity and the current financial crisis will exacerbate present difficult conditions. As ideas that either 'the market' or 'communities' could solve these urban issues appear increasingly unrealistic, there have been suggestions for a stronger role for governments through reformed instruments of urban planning. However, agencies (such as UN-Habitat) promoting this make the point that in many parts of the world current urban planning systems are actually part of the problem: they serve to promote social and spatial exclusion, are anti-poor, and are doing little to secure environmental sustainability. Urban planning, it is argued, therefore needs fundamental review if it is to play any meaningful role in current urban issues. This paper explores the idea that urban planning has served to exclude the poor, but that it might be possible to develop new planning approaches and systems which address urban growth and the major environment and resource issues, and which are pro-poor. What is clearly evident is that over the last two to three decades, urban places in both the global North and South have changed significantly: in terms of their economy, society, spatial structure and environments. Yet it appears that planning systems, particularly in the global South, have changed very slowly and some hardly at all, with many approaches and systems reflecting planning ideas from the global North simplistically transferred to Southern contexts through complex processes of colonialism and globalisation. The persistence of older forms of planning in itself requires explanation. The paper briefly reviews newer approaches to urban planning which have emerged in both the global North and South to see the extent to which they might, at the level of principle, offer ideas for pro-poor and sustainable planning. The dangers of further inappropriate 'borrowing' of ideas across contexts are stressed. It concludes that there are some important shifts and new ideas, but no ready-made solutions for Southern urban contexts. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.