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City Planning and the Processes of Social Integration
Ognjen Čaldarović
; Filozofski fakultet, Zagreb
Abstract
What is the relationship between urban planning and social integration? How successful are the principles of urban planning or urbanism in »producing« socio-integrative characteristics of behavior of inhabitants in new parts of cities? What is the value of the theory of physical determinism or ecological determinism?
In order to give some answers and to further analyze the cited frame of reference, several dimensions which are most used as the »unspoken truth« in urban planning are considered. It is argued that social integration is less present to the extent that there is a greater difference between that which is planned and that which is realized. Furthermore, the level of social integration depends on the degree of completion of new settlements. The value of the common-sense assertion about the greater degree of social integration in older parts of cities in contrast to newer parts is then examined. The author also considers the dependence of the degree of social integration on the manner of construction, giving special attention to the process of building a city in the past and in more recent times, to variations which can influence the process of social integration with regard to the predominant type of housing facility in settlements (individual and collective apartment buildings). Mention is also made of the importance of social adaptation as both a positive and negative element in the process of integration and, finally, to the possible influence of the manner and type of city planning in general on the »production« of processes of social integration. It is then argued that the process of urban planning understood as a process of decision-making and as a specific technology of spatial management should undergo most basic changes.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
156127
URI
Publication date:
30.6.1978.
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