Introduction

This book is about how one of these efforts,1 the production of the Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework (MSDF) for metropolitan Cape Town, came into being. The story of the MSDF is a lengthy one, spanning ten years of the political transition, and is one which reflects, in the various stages of its unfolding, many of the dynamics occurring both in national political negotiating chambers and on the streets of Cape Town itself. The book is also about change and continuity in efforts to promote spatial planning at the city scale. One of the most remarkable aspects of the MSDF story is that while so many facets of both the planning process and the product represent a significant break with the past, many other facets demonstrate the constraints to change in the realms of ideas and forms of practice. The period is marked by a shift from the enforcement of racial and spatial segregation through ‘blueprint’ planning, to an approach to planning aimed at urban integration and redistribution, and thereafter to a view of planning as integral to ‘global positioning’ and ‘entrepreneurial’ government. However, the persistence of a modernist planning philosophy provides continuity to these planning efforts. At the same time as change appears to be the defining aspiration of present planning, it also appears to be extremely difficult to achieve.