ABSTRACT
Cities contain major elements of stability, but they are by no means static. Change and transition are normal parts of the urban condition and the urban form is, as Harvey (1985) suggested, remarkably restless. However, several things are unusual about the present phase of transition for most western cities: first, it is a very comprehensive transition, affecting many dimensions of city life; second, it is taking place with unprecedented speed; and third, it has contained many aspects of decline, which have contrasted sharply with the era of unprecedented growth delivered by ‘Keynesian’ state regulated capitalism from about 1945 to 1970. After the early 1970s, urban planners, administrators and politicians had to cope not simply with the challenges of change and growth management, but with the altogether more daunting task of change and decline. This chapter will argue that much of the discourse about urban change has concerned economic, social or political transition, but that there are important land use implications which have often been neglected. As has been argued in previous chapters, land use is of vital importance because it is both the container for urban activities and thus forms the physical framework of cities, and because it is one of the keys to economic, social and political power.
