ABSTRACT
The philosophical basis of the proposed conflict approach is Ellul's penetrating thought 'The Political Illusion'. Ellul observes that the general idea in modern thinking is that tension, arising from conflicting attitudes, motives and values, both at the individual and group level, is unproductive and must be eliminated by adjusting the individual, group and ideologies to the realities of the existing situation. There is a need to have a holistic approach to urban problems, an approach which challenges current thinking on the basis of a proper understanding of the true nature of the city and humanity. Urban management, although sprawling across many academic disciplines, is nevertheless focused on the examination of the public institutional side of urban government and community participation. Because of the disparate nature of urban management research, it has been decided to use an eclectic approach, i.e. one which combines interpretavism and structuralism, but also uses empirical data to support probabilistic explanations.
