Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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the modern state, advocating the "public interest," arbitrated between various interests to
maintain a stable, dynamic society to raise subjects' welfare. 9 For example, in their
discussion of the baroque city and urbanism, Hohenberg and Lees noted that "Most of the
capital for actual construction was private." In the United States, prior to the beginning of
this century, urban planning was essentially physical and backed by wealthy private
sponsors. In contrast, in modern non-Western societies, the state, more than private
entities, has become the principal navigator of development. 10
Three responses emanated from the city's deteriorating conditions in the nineteenth
century. 11 First, a rural Utopia or a rejectionist response advocated the return to the
predominantly rural context of the medieval period. The second response took a
compromising approach to reform some features of the industrial society. This response
called for controlling the urban industrial milieu, and eventually such efforts culminated in
such planning approaches as the Garden City movement. The third response was the
radical one. Although it accepted industrialization as a necessity and reality of the times,
the radical response proponents advocated revolt against established means of distribution
of resources in the society. The proponents called for massive reconstruction by which
existing institutions, values, and social mechanisms would be supplanted by a new social
system. Mannheim disparaged the revolt response as wish fulfillments "chiliasm". He
considered them as projections of dreams, "the social Utopias." 12
The evolution of modem Western planning owes considerably to the Utopias of the
nineteenth century. Utopias were based on social theories which advocated certain desired
values and practices by presenting them in an ideal state or society. They were projections
of their authors' conceptions of ideal living habitats. The tradition of Utopian response to
the deteriorating city reflected the need to confront the ailing social conditions of the
industrial city. Utopias sought the eradication of major social malaise brought by rapid
change, through the use of intelligent physical design, a tradition to be copied in future
urban reforms. From Robert Owen's A New View of Society (1813) to Frank Lloyd
Wright's blueprints of the Broad Acre City, such efforts were essentially reactionary. They
envisaged a trouble-free, self-sustaining village that combined the good of the countryside
with the free air of the city, all geared toward the social, educational and employment needs
of the inhabitants.