Providing an in-depth exploration of the complexities of densification policy and processes, this book brings the important experiences of densification in Johannesburg into conversation with a range of cities in Africa, the BRICS countries and the Global North. It moves beyond the divisive debate over whether densification is good or bad, adding nuance and complexity to the calls from multilateral organisations for densification as a key urban strategy.   Using empirical work in a comparative frame, Densifying the City? examines how densification policies and processes have manifested often in unanticipated or contrary ways. It offers important insights into resident-led densification and the processes and motivations that drive these activities. This will be an invigorating read for urban studies and urban planning scholars looking to move beyond a basic understanding of densifying cities to understanding the strategy behind it and its successes. Urban policy makers will also appreciate the use of key case studies throughout the book.

The Promise of Planning explores the experience of planning internationally since the global financial crisis, focusing on South Africa.

The book is a response to a decade-plus in which state-led planning has re-emerged as a putative means for achieving developmental goals (as indicated in global initiatives such as the New Urban Agenda) and where planning in South Africa has consolidated in terms of its legal and policy basis. However, the return of planning is happening in an inauspicious context, with economic fragilities, technological shifts, political populism, institutional complexities, and more, threatening to upturn the "new promise of planning." The book provides a careful analytical account of planning in South Africa and how and why its promises have been difficult to achieve.

Building on the authors’ previous book, Planning and Transformation, the book sheds light on planning as an increasingly complex and diverse governmental practice within a perpetually changing world. It can be used as a resource for planners who must make good on the new promise of planning while navigating the risks and threats of the contemporary world, as well as students and faculty interested in international planning debates and the South African case.

Originally published in 1986. This book focusses on a critical analysis of regional development strategy in South Africa, and shifts over time in that strategy. Regional development theory and thinking about settlement policy have developed largely independently of each other. This book clarifies some of the resulting confusion and points towards a greater integration of the two areas of understanding. The book provides an overview of shifts which occurred in national and regional development theory and the broader social, economic and political factors which influenced these shifts. It identifies the major policy implications of the various development approaches, with particular emphasis placed on the role of settlement policy. The differences between policy approaches and the debates surrounding them are identified and discussed.

Originally published in 1986. This book focusses on a critical analysis of regional development strategy in South Africa, and shifts over time in that strategy. Regional development theory and thinking about settlement policy have developed largely independently of each other. This book clarifies some of the resulting confusion and points towards a greater integration of the two areas of understanding. The book provides an overview of shifts which occurred in national and regional development theory and the broader social, economic and political factors which influenced these shifts. It identifies the major policy implications of the various development approaches, with particular emphasis placed on the role of settlement policy. The differences between policy approaches and the debates surrounding them are identified and discussed.

In the years after the 1994 transition to democracy in South Africa, planners were convinced that they would be able to successfully promote a vision of integrated, equitable and sustainable cities, and counter the spatial distortions created by apartheid. This book explores the experience of planning in South Africa during the ten years from 1994, with the aim of contributing to key international debates in planning theory. The authors argue that, because of the highly fluid nature of South African society during these last ten years, this country provides a useful 'laboratory' in which to explore the possibilities of achievement in the planning field. Thus while many of the factors which have affected planning have been context-specific, the nature of South Africa's transition and its relationship to global dynamics have meant that many of the issues which confront planners in other parts of the world are echoed here as well. Issues of governance, integration, market competitiveness, sustainability, democracy and values are as significant here as they are elsewhere, and the particular nature of the South African experience lends new insights to thinking on these questions.
The book is subdivided into sections which reflect the main themes in international planning debates. After Part A, which sets the scene in terms of the overall objectives of the book and the changing nature of planning under apartheid and in the post-apartheid era, the sections deal with:
Planning and governance, including planning at the local, regional, national and transnational scales;
Discourses of planning, including those of spatial frameworks, integration and transformation, planning'srelationship to the market, and discourses related to environment and sustainability;
Planning and society, including professionalism, education, planning values, its response to diversity and informality, and to the big social issues of AIDS, poverty and crime
A concluding section considers the power of planning in the South African context and the limits to its power.

In the years after the 1994 transition to democracy in South Africa, planners were convinced that they would be able to successfully promote a vision of integrated, equitable and sustainable cities, and counter the spatial distortions created by apartheid. This book explores the experience of planning in South Africa during the ten years from 1994, with the aim of contributing to key international debates in planning theory. The authors argue that, because of the highly fluid nature of South African society during these last ten years, this country provides a useful 'laboratory' in which to explore the possibilities of achievement in the planning field. Thus while many of the factors which have affected planning have been context-specific, the nature of South Africa's transition and its relationship to global dynamics have meant that many of the issues which confront planners in other parts of the world are echoed here as well. Issues of governance, integration, market competitiveness, sustainability, democracy and values are as significant here as they are elsewhere, and the particular nature of the South African experience lends new insights to thinking on these questions.
The book is subdivided into sections which reflect the main themes in international planning debates. After Part A, which sets the scene in terms of the overall objectives of the book and the changing nature of planning under apartheid and in the post-apartheid era, the sections deal with:
Planning and governance, including planning at the local, regional, national and transnational scales;
Discourses of planning, including those of spatial frameworks, integration and transformation, planning'srelationship to the market, and discourses related to environment and sustainability;
Planning and society, including professionalism, education, planning values, its response to diversity and informality, and to the big social issues of AIDS, poverty and crime
A concluding section considers the power of planning in the South African context and the limits to its power.