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Title Stad en mens City and man
Full text http://hdl.handle.net/10210/2989
Date 2009
Author(s) Oosthuizen, A. J. G.
Abstract Inaugural lecture--Department of Urban Studies, Rand Afrikaans University, 17 September 1973 - Urbanisation is a worldwide phenomenon taking place with increased rapidity, and this caused urban places to become foci of academic interest. Several theories of urban development, based on human locational behaviour, have been put forward on both the inter-and intra-urban levels. Most of the early theories, however, emphasised static conditions of equilibrium based on rational decision making. The growing complexity of the urban scene, with its interconnected activity systems, however, forced contemporary theory to take cognisance of the dynamic aspect of change. This gave new impetus to the urban ecological approach, which underlines a dynamic process of human adaption to man's socia-economic and built-up urban environment. Urban places are presently looked upon as human ecosystems, typified by different processes of change, of which human behaviour, crystalising in socio-economic status, life cycle and ethnic differentiation, together with obsolescence and technological development, are the most important. Proper understanding of the urban scene is mandatory before effective measures of intervention could be considered. An evaluation of urban planning, as such a measure of intervention, leads to the conclusion that physical environmental determinism is still very real in planning practice and education, also in South Africa. Welcome signs of a reorientation process are, however, noticable, especially in the multi-disciplinary approach towards planning, the increasing importance of adaptive planning with its shorter time horizon and changing theoretical concepts and new emphasis on the implementation of planning programmes. The planning process in particular opened up new fields of investigation and application, most relevant of which are continuous urban research and the role of human values and behaviour in political decision making. In the case of the former emphasis is placed on methodology and the relationship between fundamental research and policy implementation. In the case of the latter new importance is attached to the role of public opinion in planning matters and special emphasis is placed on changing human values and programmes to activate the urban dweller. The concepts of mass perception, citizen participation and voluntary association are seen as promising venues in this respect.
Subject(s) Urban development - South Africa; Urbanisation - Theory
Language afr
Type of publication Inaugural
Rights University of Johannesburg
Repository Johannesburg - University of Johannesburg
Added to C-A: 2010-02-23;08:56:32