Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

600 Pierre de Bie
make to another in solving a problem for which a single discipline would offer
false or unattainable solutions.
If the intention is to act on the second term of the relation, namely the popula-
tion, it is not demography solely or even primarily that is involved, but a whole
number of human and social sciences such as social psychology, social and cul-
tural anthropology, sociology and even political and administrative sciences.
To our knowledge of fertility rates and their variations must be coupled all
insights into attitudes and values, the mechanisms by which they are main-
tained and modified; the most influential social categories, those whose exam-
ple in the matter of family planning (or absence of planning) is likely to be follow-
ed, must be discovered. Though the aims to be set depend on the man of ac-
tion, the means of attaining them presuppose extensive psychological, social
and cultural knowledge.
Physical planning studies also involve recourse to specialists in a variety of
the social sciences, in order to cover properly all aspects of the problems raised.
Advocating that a place be reserved for social planners in physical develop-
ment teams, Demetrius Iatradis brings out strongly the vital need to combine
various disciplinary approaches in the study of urban planning :
In everyday practice, experts are becoming increasingly aware and accepting more
readily that the several types of space - such as perceptual, social, economic and physi-
cal - are indeed interdependent, and that successful urban planning requires that all of
them be correctly taken into account. Although a distinct planning specialization with
its own methodology, framework and vocabulary now appears to evolve around
various approaches to development (such as social, economic, technological, political
or spatial), there is an increasing awareness among practitioners that in planning
urban growth these approaches to development and the various concepts of space are
variables of one and the same entity and that they should merge. The greater this con-
viction, the more acceptable and essential the role of the social planner.
Most physical planners in the recent past had to be convinced that a limited speciali-
zation viewpoint no longer sufficed to meet the challenge to create an urban environ-
ment appropriate for human and social development, and that a social scientist could
prove an effective, realistic and full-status team member.35
A study of the effects of urban renewal projects and development programmes
reveals still more strikingly the need to associate from the outset experts who
wil be mindful of the social aspects of the plans established by the technicians:
The results are reasonably conclusive in certain aspects and have been the cause of
increasing concern in various places and of a distinct disillusion with existing physical
development programmes and practices. Critical and realistic assessments of certain
urban renewal projects in the United States of America, or of physical development
‘master plans’ in Asia and Africa, or the establishment of new cities in Latin America
have frequently pointed out major shortcomings and, at times, brought to the surface
undesirable and unforeseen consequences which usually disturb the socio-economic
pattern of the community. ... While physical planners are attempting more and more
to employ social science concepts and tools to improve the quality and effectiveness of
physical development programmes, social planners are also becoming nicreasingly
aware that the organization of the physical environment may be instrumental in
achieving human and social goals.86
The disciplines that are or may be associated in physical development plans
are extremely numerous. In the sciences of man alone, an initial survey of the
disciplines that are frequently found in collaboration during inquiries designed