ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the development and role of theory in urban planning, and to show to what extent it borrows from geography and to what extent it diverges. It proposes a working classification of planning theory in an attempt to bring some order into a rather jumbled field, and to make subsequent discussion clearer. Then it reviews the positivist approach along with the humanistic-materialist debate in relationship to this classification and demonstrates the utility and limitations of the rational model. At the outset it is useful to divide planning theory into three groups: (1) substantive theory, relating to design and policy in urban planning; (2) theories of explanation of urban phenomena; and (3) theories of process, that is, theory of procedure and implementation. Substantive theory has evolved through military, political and religious considerations, and through economic, social and environmental analysis. Advocacy planning represents a conflictual model. It provokes resistance from provincial and local governments.
