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Beyond General Systems Theory: a Constructivist Perspective

Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Melbourne, Australia

Since modem town planning was first promulgated in the nineteenth century it has developed through three phases. Each phase has built on earlier ideas and grown out of the testing of these ideas in practice. The first phase was dominated by the visionary concerned with the physical city; the focus of the second phase was the decision-making structures which create the city. In the third and current phase the town planner has emerged as just one species of government planner. Such a planner must be aware of the complexity of human interaction and must be guided by her own values and political philosophy. General systems theory provided the dominant conceptual framework for the second phase but today we are becoming aware of its insufficiencies. Whether such an all-embracing framework will emerge in the third phase is doubtful. But it is argued here that personal construct theory provides at least a broad theoretical foundation at a high level of abstraction which could give today's planners a better understanding of their role.

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