Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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resulting adverse conditions inspired social consciousness in the form of Utopias and
philanthropy, and later in the institutionalization of urban planning. With the improvement
of the physical environment, early planners expected the major social ills in the city to
disappear. In the West, modern urban planning emerged in an open political environment
and reflected the imperatives of its economic systems, and governments' involvement in
urban development in various degrees reflected citizens whose votes affected the political
process. In contrast, in many developing nation-states, planning is de facto activity which
lies within domain of the central state.
II. URBAN PLANNING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
In Developing countries, rapid transformation occurred amidst dismal political and
economic environments. The transition from traditional, pre-industrial social systems into
modern urban conglomerations was initiated by colonialism and later augmented by the
subordination of internal economies of the newly formed nation-states to the world's
political economic system. The inteijection of foreign powers in the path of cultural
development precluded the development of local processes compatible with and geared
toward local culture's needs. The departure of these colonial systems left behind a political
vacuum which was filled by despotic military regimes and traditional monarchies. In the
wake of Western technology, traditional urban design and building processes were
rendered obsolete, less capable of meeting growth demand under rapid urbanization. The
substitution of the traditional ways of life and building techniques necessitated new
concepts of spatial organization, at the individual building level as well as on the city scale.
Imported planning paradigms and construction methods, coupled with the introduction of
the automobile, aborted old ones and pre-empted indigenous development under inertia.
Overwhelmed by rapid urbanization, the fledgling states took the task of urban planning.
Urban planning has inherently become the prerogative of the state, an activity which has
since remained sealed from the public.
To a very large extent, the colonization of non-Western territories by European
powers forged the map of the modern world. By the time of their departure, these
territories were transformed into distinctive geographic territories with economies
established during colonization. New nation-states emerged supplanting colonial control,
predominantly governed by authoritative political systems. The newly established nationstates
inherited a centralized framework of administration. Regarding this point, Reissman