Eight Postulates on Planning

How can planning respond more adequately to current developments in Europe's urban lifestyles and preferences? Is physical planning a feasible instrument for counteracting such destructive urban forces as sprawl, segregation and fragmentation? And is it conceivable for citizens, to some extent at least, to actually participate in the processes of change?

Ethnologist Karl-Olov Arnstberg and Architect Inger Bergström at Stockholm University used their best endeavours to formulate, on the basis of their research and planning experience, a number of theses for the guidance of architects and planners. In eight postulates they discuss city-dwelling, physical planning and the social and cultural values of urban living. With Swedish planning practices as their starting point, they shed new light on the workings of complex urban environments.