There have been competing models of urban planning and one approach has been Operation Research. This approach sought to find a universal method whereby experts would evaluate alternatives in relation to a specified set of goals and then choose the optimum solution.
This scientific approach to public policy making was quickly challenged by critics who argued that the human consequences of planning decisions could not be neatly quantified and added up.3
Also under attack was the ‘Garden City’ and Le Corbusier’s ‘towers in the park’ approach. Jane Jacobs an urban analyst was one such critic. In her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) she criticized large scale clearance operations for destroying the complex social fabric and imposing an inhuman orderliness. Population density is not an evil but important for urban vitality. The argument here just like the sub-cultural theorists is that density and diversity are assets that makes city life vibrant.
| 3Discuss ‘abstract’ and ‘social’ spaces following Lefebvre. |
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