ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book uses South Africa as a case study to demonstrate how the assumptions underlying the modernist approach to urban movement, which is still deeply entrenched in most countries, are entirely inappropriate, and have caused intractable problems in urban areas. The direction of required change is in all cases the same: the overriding intention is to transform fragmented, distorted apartheid settlements so that they positively accommodate the activities of the vast majority of their inhabitants. The principles of the Development Facilitation Act (DFA) apply to all land development and they give over-arching direction. The book also seeks to promote a debate about transportation and its role in urban settlements and, in this way, to promote positive change in current transportation practices.
