PLANNING THEORY AND HISTORY

Definition of Planning
 Planning as a basic human activity that pervades human behavior at every level of society
- “a plan is any hierarchical process in the organism that can control the order in which a sequence of operations is to be
performed”
 Planning as a rational choice that meets certain standards of logic
- “ a process for determining appropriate future actions through a sequence of choices”
 Planning as control of future action
 Planning as a special kind of problem solving
 Planning is: Societal, Future-oriented, Non-routinized, Deliberate, Action-oriented
 Planning is the deliberate social or organizational activity of developing an optimal strategy for achieving a desired set of goals
 Planning aims to apply methods of rational choice to determining a best set of future actions addressed to novel problems in complex
contexts
 It is attended by the power and intention to commit resources and to act as necessary to implement the chosen strategy

PLANNING THEORIES & APPROACHES: History & Evolution

Time Period 1801-1850 1851-1900 1898-1930

 Influx of people persisted  Crowding and
 Growth of industrial cities (Industrial
 Clamor for civic beauty congestion in industrial cities
Revolution)
 Growing sponsorship of municipal art (outdoor  Challenge of consolidating scientific efficiency
Prevailing  Housing and health concerns
art & recreational space) (economies of scale and horizontal-vertical
influence  Social Equity issues (era of the influential
 Grassroots interest in civic improvement integration of industries)
capitalists)
(communities became aware of urban problems)  Integrated approach to social equity and civic
 Urban blight
aesthetics
 Garden City movement
 State intervention
 Municipal art movement  Self-contained communities surrounded by
Dominating  Socialism
 City Beautiful Movement greenbelts
ideologies  Utilitarianism
 Balanced areas of residence, industry & agriculture
 Utopianism
 Cooperative housing schemes (socialized  Aspiration of combing town and country in self-
tenement housing)  Institutionalization of aesthetic consideration in contained settlements with limited population
 Self-contained communities in mega- civic planning and design (approach is highly  Farmlands linked to central city by railway
Development
structures physical; minimal concern over social planning)  Creation of garden cities outside of developed areas
Orientation
 Concept of sanitation  Return to nature
 Initiated by local government  Rise of regional planning

Planner Industrialists Reformist / Civic designer Theorist

 Robert Owen: self-contained housing;
socialist and cooperative movement  Daniel Burnham: San Francisco, Chicago,
Proponents  Charles Fourier: French utopian socialist Detroit & Baguio City  Ebenezer Howard
and reformer

Rational Comprehensive
Model
(Rational-Adaptive /
Synoptic Planning)
40’s: Herbert Simon‟s
Synoptic Model in
Decision-making (1945)
 instrumental rationality
as a tool (Simon:
bounded rationality;
Lindblom: incremental
decision-making;
Etzioni: mixed scanning)
Period &
proponents
*Instrumentalism theories
are only useful tools for
making predictions, they
are only guides to
successful action; Spatial
analysis and concepts may
not accurately reflect
reality. Results are what
count.
 Belief in greater
rationality in public
decision-making
 Comprehensive – strives
to coordinate more &
more activities
 Allocative or Regulatory:
concerned with solving
chronic problems by
way of allocating
resources efficiently and
Tenets
enacting rules &
standards
 Notion of the public is
homogenous
 Reason for dominance
 Offers planners
procedural input
 “scientific” –
professional
legitimacy
 Compatible with
STAGES of PLANNING PRAXIS
Communicative
Radical Political Equity Planning Radical Planning
Advocacy Planning Model Action & Social
Economy Model Model Model
Learning Models
Jürgen Habermas,
John Forester,
Anthony Giddens,
60’s:Paul Davidoff‟s Patsy Healy
“Advocacy & Pluralism in
Planning” (1965) - advocacy planners
- the Civil Rights movement went to the field &
70’s:David Harvey‟s
gained momentum: set the 80’s: Norman learned about local
“Social Justice & the City”
climate where dissenting Krumholz (inheritors knowledge and
(1973) and Manuel
opinion is heard of the advocacy political skills of the
Castells‟ “The Urban
- Sherry Arnstein: Citizen tradition) community
Question” (1976)
Participation and Allan D. - shift from
Heskin: concepts of instrumental
„empowerment‟ rationality to
communicative
rationality by
Habermas
 Planning aims to
understand &
describe social
interaction for
meaningful
 Emerged from the
 Planners should advocate discourse,
recognition of
for those who are  The objective of harmonization of
unequal relations
powerless and planning is to interests, and
& distribution of
disenfranchised consciously collaborative action
power
 Creation of multiple  Planning is an redistribute power (interpretive)
 The goal is to work
plans to reflect diverse inherently political from the elite to  Expert knowledge
for structural
values & interests activity lead by the the poor vs. experiential
transformation &
instead of just 1 dominant class  It is ethical for the knowledge
to empower those
masterplan planner to side  Emphasis on
who have been
 Belief in due process & with the human worth &
systematically
enlightened plural marginalized reciprocity
disempowered
democracy  Planning:
„transactive‟ finding
common ground,
rather than
„transactional‟
 economists‟
rational resource
allocation
(Chicago School)
 Planner as the
 Planners should
“handmaid” of power  Planners:
choose the  Planner engages in
 Planner as the “knower” community-based
 Planner as advocate who politicians they dialogue and social
relying on his expertise  Planner: revealer of practice;
Role of the informs people of costs, work with learning with client
 Planner as self- contradictions & agents allegiance is with
Planner benefits & consequences  Planner: good through
correcting Scientist of social innovation the community
of alternatives communicator, “transactive” style
searching for the “crossing over from
directs public of planning
“correct” way to plan the state”
attention to issues
 The state‟s role is to  The state is
Concept of  Assumes the state is
accumulate capital & it antagonistic
the State neutral
sides with the elite towards CS
 Normative Utopian
 Top-down planning is
anti-democratic  Planners still make the
 May strive to be
 on instrumentalist view: plans; the “represent”  Did not explicitly
inclusionary but
Critique When there is no overall without including them provide what planners
still top-down in
theory, actions tend to in the process which is can do
approach
become segmented and not empowering
un-integrated

 Disjointed Incrementalism / Incremental Planning (Lindblom): partisan mutual adjustment  Unified public
interest cannot be defined; determined through negotiation and political compromises
- Planner acts as mediator to determine common interest.
- Asks what is politically feasible politically (instead of what is technically efficient and effective)
- Policy-makers have “cognitive limits”  decision-making is a succession of approximations.

 Traditional Planning (e.g under authoritarian rule): Imperative planning (top-down) – tends to command and to issue
specific directives
- detailing or fine-tuning grand concept from a dictator or ruling elite
- Planner as hired consultant or technician

 Mixed Scanning: Neither Rationalism nor Incrementalism

- Less exacting than and not at utopian/ unrealistic as rationalism but not as constricting in perspective
(myopic, self-oriented & non-innovative) as incrementalism

 Strategic Planning: Innovative Planning: improve or develop whole systems, introduce new goals, shape change
- Oriented toward results or outcomes
- Planner as a visionary or entrepreneur
 Planning as Social Physics: positivist Regional Science and Regional Economics) Planning aims to discover
presumed natural laws or regular occurrences in social phenomena so that these phenomena can be better predicted
and managed.

 Planning and Social Darwinism: Planning studies human societies as biological organisms subject to the laws of
natural evolution such as competition, adaptation, predation, parasitism, co-evolution, survival of the fittest

 Planning as Social Engineering: Planning is a State function that aims to create purposive change by directing human
behavior through a combination of persuasive and coercive strategies.

 Systems Theory of Planning: Planning functions like a machine or computer unit that utilizes information and
feedback in an iterative, cyclical, self-feeding fashion in order to effectively describe, simulate & forecast societal
conditions.

- System: set of interconnected components interacting to form an integrated whole; Relationships tie the system
together
- Anything affecting one component will affect all the other components
- A change in one component will result in a change in the other components
- “Cybernetics” (Norbert Wiener, 1948; Ashby,1956) – interdisciplinary science dealing with communication and
control systems in living organisms, machines, and organizations
 -

URBAN SPATIAL STRUCTURE THEORIES: explains how cities change their form

Concentric Ring Theory (Ernest Burgess, 1925)

 Based on the growth of the City of Chicago for 50 years
 As you move out of the CBD, land values decrease (reduction of accessibility, rent & density)
 Towns expand outward evenly from an original core so that each zone grows by gradual colonization into the next outer
ring.
 5 concentric rings divide the city into five zones:
- Zone 1: CBD
- Zone 2: Transition zone with mixes use of industry and slums
- Zone 3: Workmen‟s quarters, housing is better than slums
- Zone 4: Middle class housing; moving further away from the congestion & pollution of the city
- Zone 5: High-income housing
Critique: (1) overemphasized residential patterns and did not give proper credit to other land uses, ignored physical features, took little account of industrial and
railway use, and disregarded the effect of radial routes upon land values and uses; (2) rarely do cities have distinct zones with defined barriers; (3) urban areas often
have mixed land uses, and activities are not homogenous in 1 zone

Sector / Radial Model (Homer Hoyt, 1939)

 Studied 142 American Cities during the age of the automobile
 Model relates accessibility, land use & land values
 Cities tended to grow in wedge-shaped patterns or sectors, originating from the CBD and along lines of transportation
(railroad, highway, seaports) that creates a homogenous use
 High accessibility = higher land values as in the CBD
 Compatible land uses are adjacent to each other; incompatible uses repel each other
- Sector 1: CBD
- Sector 2: Wholesale & Light manufacturing
- Sector 3 – 5: Low, middle, high-income residential (low-income nearest to manufacturing; high & low incme are furthest
away from each other)
 Wealthy residents choose to live further away but along main roads because they have automobiles
 The high-rent sector locates: along established routes of travel, in high ground or near water fronts – furthest away from industry, in areas where there is
open space
 Low-income households tend to be near railroad lines and fill the remaining undeveloped areas
Axial Development Theory
 Transport Model based on Hoyt‟s Sector Model
 Travel time rather than transport cost is the important determinant of land use
 Major roads radiate from the city center
 Commercial development follows transport routes resulting in a star-shaped pattern

Concentric Zone Theory (Peter Mann, 1965, UK)

 Used Burgess‟ model to typify a British city in 1965 (Sheffield, Nottingham)
 An urban area is large enough to have distinct internal differentiation
 Main feature: commuter village is separate from built-up areas
- Zone 1& 2: Central District & Transition Zone
- Zone 3, 4, 5: housing, the latter being the commuter zone
- Zone A: middle class housing (furthest away from industrial area, Zone D)
- Zone B & C: lower-middle class & working class housing (the lowest income earners are nearest to industrial
zone)
- Zone D: industrial area

Multiple Nuclei Theory (Edward Ullman & Chauncey Harris, 1945)

 Related to US cities with gridiron streets & land uses were shaped geometrically
 City develops w/ equal intensity around various points (certain activities need specialized facilities = agglomeration)
 CBD is not the sole generator of change: there may be several distinct nuclei
- 1 & 7: CBD and sub-CBD
- 2: Wholesale & light manufacturing
- 3-5: Low to high class residential
- 6: heavy manufacturing
- 8&9: residential and industrial suburb

THEORIES OF SPATIAL PLANNING (URBAN GROWTH = identify reasons why urban areas grow or decline)
 Also includes the gravity model
 Firms location: firms will always choose to locate where there is minimum production and transportation cost
- If inputs have multiple sources – firms locate to where there money weighs more
- Other determinants: natural resource, cheap labor, inexpensive land, presence of natural amenities, pleasant weather

Agricultural Land Rent Theory ( Johann Heinrich von Thunen, 1842)

 explained differences in the intensity of production of different crops relative to the market center.
 Land with greatest demand is the one nearest to the market because of low transport cost
 Town center is surrounded by rural land with constant fertility, in the ff. order;
- Horticulture & dairy (perishable; need to be transported quick)
- Silviculture for fuelwood
- Extensive field crops
- Ranching and wilderness
Central Place Theory (Walter Christaller)
 central place = settlement which provides 1 or more services for the population living around it
 analysis of the size, distribution and composition of a firm; hexagonal market areas which overlap
 idea that different firms have different market areas; there is a hierarchy of activities – higher and lower order
 THRESHOLD = minimum population; RANGE = maximum distance
 Lower order goods (frequently purchased and cheap) = low threshold; high order goods (costly, infrequent consumption)= high
threshold
- Larger settlements are fewer in number and are further away from similar sized settlements
- Range increases as the population increases
- Higher settlements = higher order services (deviation: tourism, small population with many services; dorm towns, large population but limited services)
- Limitation: isotropic, uniform geography, static economy, transportation is function of distance and uniformly available, assumes uniform distribution of
population with equal purchasing power

Rank-Size Rule (George Zipf, 1941)

 The Rank Size Rule notes the relationship between the ranks of cities and their populations.
 Population of a given urban area tends to be equal to the population of the largest city divided by the rank of the populatio n size into which the given urban
area falls, the population of settlements thus being arranged according to the series 1, ½, ¼, etc..
 For example, if the largest town has a population of x, the second largest town will have a population of x/2, the 3rd largest will have a population of x/3…
 Does apply when there is Urban Primacy.

Range & Threshold (Berry and Garrison, 1958)

 concepts of “range and threshold” shape the distribution of central places; different goods and services vary both in threshold and range
 Threshold: Minimum level of effective demand that will allow a firm to stay in business; the minimum market needed to bring a firm or
city selling goods and services into existence and to keep it in business. Alternatively, it can refer to the minimum amount of purchasing
power necessary to support the supply of G/S from a central place.
 Range of Goods and Services – refers to the average maximum distance by which people are willing to travel to obtain or purchase the
good or product at market price

Bid-rent Curve (William Alonso, 1964)

 Land that is more accessible to the center has a higher value.
 Land rents decline farther away from an employment or transport center.
 As a firm moves closer to the CBD, transport costs fall which increases the amount a firm is willing to pay for land.
 Taller buildings are built on higher-valued land leading to the formation of „Central Business District‟
 Firm substitutes capital for land enabling it to produce the same output on less land, or in other words, more output per unit of
land.
 Higher land prices lead profit-maximizing firms to substitute other factors of production for land.
 Assumptions: City is mono-centric with a single nucleus; there is perfect competition and level playing field; land is sold to the
highest bidder; all land is identical, except for transport nodes which have higher accessibility.
REGIONAL PLANNING: emerged during the 2nd half of the 1950s due to disparity of development
- Walter Isard (1956) as the father of regional science – dealt with problems of urban and regional policy (disparity of income and transportation patterns)

 Growth Pole Theory (Francois Perroux 1950)

 Growth Center Theory (Jacques R. Boudeville 1966)
 Theory of Cumulative Causation (Gunnar Myrdal 1957)
 Theory of Uneven Development; Polarization and Trickle Down Effect (Albert Hirschman 1958)
 Core-Periphery Model (John Friedmann 1978)
-
- Industrial Linkage Model (Allan Richard Pred 1977)
- Hierarchical Diffusion Model (Brian JL Berry 1973)
- World Bank‟s Model of Regional Planning (WDR 2009)

Growth Pole Theory (Francois Perroux 1950)

 introduced the concept of a propulsive unit
 pertained to economic space; his theory has no spatial component (deliberate attempt to break away from limiting geographical
dimension by Christaller and Losch)
 POLE: centrifugal forces emanate and centripetal force is attracted; it is a dominant economic entity
 Process of Polarisation: induces the growth of other economic units through internal and external economies of scale (former:
lower production cost per unit of output and job secialization; latter: growth of labor pool within the area and close proximity to firms w/c produce product-
input
 Spread effects and trickle down – propulsive qualities of the pole radiate outward
 Characteristics of a propulsive firm: (a) relatively new and fast-growing industry with advanced technology; (b) high elasticity of the product produced; (c)
strong inter-industry linkage; (d) relatively large; (e) generates significant growth impulses; (f) high ability to innovate
 Downside: when diseconomies set in: saturation of urban area such as congestion and pollution, cost of public services, wages and rents go up
 Policy Implication: concentration of industrial area for effects of agglomeration

Growth Center Theory (Jacques R. Boudeville 1966)

 Growth Center (geographic space) is a propulsive urban center of a region possessing a complex of expanding industries where the agglomeration of activities
induces growth in its surrounding hinterland. The growth center has growth rate of population or employment that is greater than that of total region.
 Usefulness of the theory: (a) “efficient” way of generating development; (b) less public expenditures if investments are concentrated in certain points; (c)
spread will stimulate depressed regions; (d) transportation routes as channels of growth; (e) useful to understand regional structures and prescribe solutions
to certain problems; (f) inspired the Philippine strategy of “concentrated decentralization” where alternative urban centers serve as counter magnets to the
Primate City
 Other variations: Darwent, 1969: Spatial Growth Poles with industries; growth point, growth foci, growth nuclei, growth area and core region

Theory of Cumulative Causation (Gunnar Myrdal 1957 – backwash & spread effects)
 Capitalism is characterized by income and welfare inequalities; Disequilibrium in economy is due to market forces; Market forces create regional inequalities
 A region or country becomes richer, the poor becomes poorer because of cumulative process where forces work in circular causation to reinforce development
 Spread effects – positive effects initially felt e.g. raw materials but backwash is stronger
 Backwash Circuits – Capital is attracted to the center, young workers migrate to the center = lack of growth / retardation of and aging labor force in the
periphery; Widening gap between core and periphery = smaller purchasing power and decline in local services

Theory of Uneven Development by (Albert Hirschman, 1958)

 Growth is necessarily an unbalanced process, and takes place through a “chain of disequilibrium,” the expansion of one industry creates disequilibrium for
the other. Uneven development is natural
 Trickle down effect” – spontaneous and inevitable process of development of backward areas; there will be an increase in purchasing
  Advocated for an unbalanced growth strategy – public investment induces growth

Center-Periphery Model (John Friedman, 1966 – also Urban Industrial Growth pole Strategy)
 Industrialization leads to a dualistic structure; periphery that is dependent to the center but is stagnant
 General theory of Polarized development and underdevelopment
 Core-Periphery Model: periphery as the source of raw materials, cheap labor and dumping ground for goods
 Export industry has a higher multiplier

Others
 Spatial Image of the World Capitalist System (Andre Gunder Frank) – LDCs are the periphery/ satellite with developed countries as the core
 Domination Theory by Hilshorst: spatial distribution of decision-making, regional devolution of power
 Dependency Theory by Randy David
 Colonialism and Spatial Structure of Underdevelopment by David Slater
 Shared Space by Milton Santos – upper and lower circuit or formal and informal economy

4 Major Theses of Regional Strategies

Theory of the Big Unbalanced growth strategy – concentration in cities and industrial estate plans
Push in the
1960s: balanced
growth strategy

Strategy of Core Neo-populist Regional Development Strategy – redistribution of growth and engaging people in the development process
Regions as
Centers of  During the 1970s development was not merely economic – development strategies took into account poverty and employment and should foster
Innovation – self-reliance
growth originates  Priority to rural development, equality & community, small scale enterprise evolution, promotion of agriculture by peasants, engaging people in
from a small the development process through participation, removing bias from the big cities – decentralization
area; innovations o US Aid Strategy for Rural Development to establish inter-urban linkages
spread downward o Integrated Area Development Strategy
and outward from o Stohr and Todtling, 1979: Selective Spatial Closure as a regional Development Strategy
centers o Friedman and Weaver (1979): Territorial Regional Planning – plan from below; shift from functional to territorial approach (integrated
mobilization of human and natural resources); decentralization and devolution
o Stohr and Taylor (1981): Alternative Paradigm of Development from Below
o Agropolitan Development: city in the fields – integration of rural and urban agricultural development

PLANNING AS THE MAIN RESPONSIBILITY OF THE STATE:

 Public sector: part of the economy concerned with government services; provides services that non-payers
benefit from
 Characteristics of the State
 Social justice and spatial systems
 State intervention in planning: integral function of governance; planning as a policy-making and problem-
solving tool and means to meet objectives
OBJECTIVES OF THE STATE: (9 GRIPEABIB)
 Accelerate growth and development
 Build infrastructure to support development
 Eliminate monopolies and Provide competition to the priv. sector for public welfare
 Generate employment and strive for eradication of poverty
 Balanced growth
 Redistribute wealth and remove inequality
 Invest in areas no one invests
 Promote ancilliary services
 Import substitution and industrialization
PHILIPPINE PLANNING HISTORY
Pre-Colonial
Spanish Colonial Period
Era
 Communal  Brought in the concept and practice
land of private property
tenure –  Regalian Doctrine: all lands are
land owned the king who invested in the
belonged conquest – rights and ownership are
to the clan bestowed by him
/ tribe  Natives were clustered into
which is barangays to be conquered and
held in Christianized (move towards greater
trust by concentration)
the chief
Laws of the Indies (applicable to
Philippines and Latin America); set of
instructions on how to organize
colonies
1. Grid-pattern streets (for military
surveillance of the colonies and
symmetrical growth of settlements)
under the Greco-Roman Tradition
2. Central plaza – the function of
open squares are essential to the
function of socio-economic life
3. Defensive wall i.e. Intramuros
4. Hierarchical arrangement
5. Used zoning for churches (given an
entire block; there is no structure
allowed beside it), hospitals &
slaughterhouses
FUNCTIONS
1. Supplier of goods and services: allocative function – market failure &
externalities, standards promotion
2. Regulator-facilitator esp. the private sector; optimal conditions of the
market
3. Social engineer / intervenor: (a) adjust market outcomes for noramative
goods; (b) what society ought to be is not what it is; (c) redress social
imbalance and maintain fairness for disadvantaged groups
4. Arbiter: between Labor, Capital and State
American Occupation Marcos Regime (Cory) Aquino Regime
 US Federal government sent Architect-  Late 60‟s to 80‟s  Ratification of the Urban
Planner Daniel Burnham to materialize  Adopted the paradigm Development and Housing Act
its ambition to build a tropical empire of planning as the of 1992 (RA 7279)
 Manila & Baguio were surveyed sites to function of the state = - Reliance on private
become tourism areas to “cure American the state as the developers for urban
Fatigue” (health sanitarium, market manager of resources housing
center and large parks for recreation)  The Urban Land  Implementation of New Land
 Plan resembled Chicago & San Francisco Reform Law (PD 1517) Classification Scheme in 1987
under the “City Beautiful Movement” was ratified to promote  Creation of the HUDCC – which
- Architecturally influenced by Neo- equitable & rational became the primary
classicism which symbolized distribution of wealth coordinating body for physical
democracy and education (from the  There was an absence planning
Greeks) of standards and  1991 Ratification of the Local
- Orderly, efficient and healthy – regulation  the start Government Code – where in
which is in stark contrast to the of blighted areas planning was devolved to LGUs
conditions of the Industrial instigated the creation  Creation of plans became
revolution of the Ministry of mandatory
 Attempted land reform by purchasing Human Settlements  Sustainable Development was
friar lands for distribution (from the which acted as the adopted as the paradigm of
Vatican, the lands ended up with coordinating body for resource use
Inquilino families) physical planning  Other concerns were also
 The Torrens Title System was introduced mainstreamed in land use
which further strengthened private (gender, participatory, then CC
property and DRRM later on
 Introduced the practice of land
subdivision to improve security of tenure