ABSTRACT
In the late twentieth century, the urban basis of our culture became the source of a
continuing paradox. If the urban experience is the fundamental mode of existence in
the developed world, albeit for many taking place in the illusory rural idyll of suburbia,
why has that experience with all its abundant facilities become so disaffecting to many
of its inhabitants? As has been mentioned, this is a phenomenon which has its roots
in the reaction to industrial cities when disquiet over potential disorder and the fear
of disease combined to produce the benign reaction of urban planning and control.
