Introduction

The idea of sustainable urban development has been seminal and highly significant among intellectuals and policy makers in the 1990s. It is seminal in the sense that it is capable of development in its historical context, and it has become international, national and local in its policy significance. The impacts upon the urban social science literature have been profound and inventive. Before sustainability took a hold, urban social science tended to be separated into the confines of subject boundaries. Urban sociologists were interested in social structure, class, segregation, and various aspects of inequality and poverty. These interests could be applied to housing, the allocation of land, relativities in incomes and access to various urban services. Economists had similar interests, but studied them in terms of theoretical explanation, technical appraisal, measurement, and the costs and benefits of policy reform. Architect-planners had regard to macro-spatial form, building technologies, and with relevance to developing countries, some pioneers such as John F C Turner brought self-help housing into relevance for low-income housing policies. Urban geographers, as guided by the conventions and scope of their subject, had eclectic interests, often undertaking household questionnaire surveys and adding commentaries on housing, social conditions and urban development. Political scientists concentrated on issues of urban government, with those in public administration specialization providing evaluations of infrastructural services and urban management. Other subjects – for example, law in development studies – were in only their first phases of influence in the urban social sciences.