The Economic Planning Concept

Generally, people have set of opinions on which they view, understand or interpret the world and so as to planning. People have their own beliefs through which they assess the world. ‘Planning’ concept has been viewed or defined in so many different ways. In order for one to understand the part played by worldviews in planning it is crucial to understand how planning was and still viewed by different people. Different definitions of planning will therefore be used as an example on how planning has been viewed and defined by different people. Taylor (1998) saw planning as an extension/part of architectural design and engineering design during early years in Britain, however, after the World War 2. Furthermore, Taylor (1998) argues that planning

This approach was mostly adopted and applied in Europe after the Second World War with the intention of stimulating the economy after war destruction. In the late 1970`s most western countries experienced stagflation and the new neo-liberal capitalist started to emerge. Neo-liberalism emphasized the importance of the free economy and the policies to stimulate market. The role of the state was to provide infrastructure and its intervention in the economy was to be kept minimum. This concept focused more on economic sectors with no or little attention paid to space where some of the economic activities take place. The connectivity in managing the spatial development of towns/cities in relation to its economic potential and environmental issues were neglected. Neo-liberalism also neglected the societal issues/concerns; its concept was merely based on economics hence it collapsed during the 1997 recession. There was a concern that it should consider the role of space and the society in the economy and balanced the economic development to include environmental and social dimensions, and this was a ‘paradigm shift’ in terms of

There are three basic eras that characterized this history. Firstly, in the late 1800s up to 1910, the three pioneers (Howard, Wright and Le Courbusier) who did not categorize themselves as ‘planners’ at that time, invented the layout plans of what was so called ‘ideal cities’. Secondly, the period between 1910 and 1945 was an era when planning was professionalized and recognized and this period also characterized the rise of regional and federal planning efforts. Lastly, the postwar era of mishap and broadening of planning (Krueckeberg