BOOK REVIEWS
The book does not report the results of research, nor
does it contain any statistical information on growth in
new towns, or of costs . But the better essays in the
section `the State of the Art' distil the experience and
highlight the difficulties of planning these new com-
munities in America, and for the British reader the main
interest may lie in the different emphasis given to familiar
problems within the context of American legislation,
finance and administration . In Pillorg6 and Brent's
interesting analysis of the Design Process, Watson's
Phasing Growth : how fast, where next? and David's
The Development Process, the overwhelming control
of market forces in all decisions is evident, as are the
problems of cash flow which inhibit the private developer
from pursuing long term planning and impart a sub-
ordinate or contingent role to social objectives .
It is not surprising, therefore, that in the third section
`New Towns and Urban Growth' one of the main themes
of a series of papers is the need for more extensive
controls over land use, subsidies for low- and middle-
income housing, incentives for industry to locate in new
towns, less dependence on local taxes for finance and
more long-term guarantees of credit : in short, an implicit
acceptance that new town planning is not compatible
with a free-enterprise economy . The need for a national
policy of urban growth is also stressed, and the impor-
tance of revitalising the inner core of large cities . The
AIA makes the radical proposal that the government
should assemble a million acres of land for such redevelop-
ment . The essays in this third section are more consistent
in quality. Crane's `In Search of New Towns' appraises
existing achievements, and points to the possibilities of
innovation in building technology through links with
Operation Breakthrough ; his discussion of the stages
and processes involved in the development of a Master
Plan might be read with profit by British planners who
have come to recognise that the Master Plan as a once
and for all solution is too inflexible .
The reader should find this an informative and interes-
ting introduction to the problems of planning new towns
in America ; if he feels that much of it is lacking in
depth, then the same might be said for much of the
literature on Britain's new towns . Its main value may
lie in recording some of the more advanced thinking in
what is clearly an important evolutionary stage in
American planning .
V . HOLE
Building Research Station
Control and Urban Planning
by J . B. McLouonur4 . London : Faber and Faber.
1973 . pp . 287 . £3 .95
Concluding Urban and Regional Planning : a systems
approach, McLoughlin suggested that control orregulation
must become the fundamental and central attribute of a
planning system . One's immediate reaction, therefore,
is that this book expands this idea-examining the
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245
guiding principles and operational characteristics of
control systems in planning. Although this is the core
of the thesis, a much wider range of material is discussed .
More than perhaps intended, the book seems to divide
into two parts. The first, reviewing the evolution of the
structure of British planning, concentrates on the relation-
ship of control to both planning and other local govern-
ment activities . The context of the control system is set
by a swift review of the changing ideology of planning,
from the easy appeal-but narrow implications-of
planning the physical environment, to the now 'con-
stantly shifting sets of values and norms' . The text then
focuses down to the characteristics of development
control ; a fairly conventional analysis and critique of
the statutory basis is followed by detailed investigation
of the organisational structure of planning departments,
examining the extent to which the control functions are
integrated and are thus able to give effect to the ideologi-
cal and statutory demands . This leads to a concise
review of `cases and case-workers' -a resume of control
work and a rather journalistic sketch of the `average
control officer' . Much of this analysis draws on empirical
observation of a 17 authority sample in 1971 .
Returning to more general levels, McLoughlin then
demonstrates how the early preoccupation with clear-cut
control of the physical environment, has inevitably
acceded to a double-tiered model of local and multi-
dimensional strategic plans . It is a model with a sophis-
ticated ability to create plans, but the efficacy and
flexibility of the control properties-translating policies
into action, direction toward objectives-are becoming
weaker. By simply contrasting the volume of DoE
documentation on Structure Planning with the amount
of study on the role of development control in the new
system, such a conclusion is irrefutable . There is little
research on the rich information potential of develop-
ment control work or the deep involvement in the `web
of contact, information, advice and help . . between
bureaucracy and the public' .
McLoughlin's contention is that the enduring inability
to provide effective, yet-most importantly-creative
control, derives partly from the evolution of British
planning. With unclear objectives, and a peripheral
stature, no control system can effectively filter changing
environmental needs . But, more fundamentally, he
suggests that an effective framework for control, will
only emerge if the administration, its planning processes
and its policies are moulded in such a way that they are
clearly responsive to changing and widening public
issues .
Thus, the second part of the book shows how such a
framework can only be constructed by recognising the
complexity of corporate urban governance in a systematic
framework, where control is central to the system .
Planning is treated as a cybernetic concept, as a regu-
lator, within a broad social system . The exploration of
this relationship inevitably leads to discussion focussing
on the law of requisite variety .
McLoughlin convincingly shows how, treated in this
way, the connectivity of the systems approach can assist
246 URBAN STUDIES
in the complex transfer of information, data and in-
telligence through various levels in the government
hierarchy-from strategic levels to detailed imple-
mentation . Adaptation, adjustment and control can thus
be made far more responsive and relevant . Such respon-
siveness lies, not only in detailed physical control, but
within the whole range of local government activity, thus
requring a `new kind of line department perhaps called
environmental management' .
The components of the planning system-from the
generality of ideology to the particularity of technical
details-are thus sequentially disaggregated and, in the
second part, reassembled into an entirely new framework
a framework, where we can see the range of planning
activity-from development control to structure plans-
as part of a corporate whole . The last chapter is parti-
cularly rich in ideas on the organization and functioning
of this systemic whole.
Thus, McLoughlin's thesis could be described as, `only
connect . . .' ; connect, on the one hand, the essential
and familiar administrative and statutory procedures of
planning intervention and control, with, on the other,
these more general concepts of complex-system regu-
lation where urban and regional planning is conceived
in a cybernetic context .
The impact of the book obviously depends on the
extent to which one can perceive the linkage between the
two parts, for as McLoughlin admits, two books were
contemplated .
The positive, factual examination of the existing
framework contrasts, perhaps too greatly, with the
exploratory, normative analysis of the second part .
Moreover, with two-thirds of the text consumed in
setting the context for the cybernetic analysis, the
balance does not favour the complex and diffuse ideas of
the second part . Yet, such is the breadth of issues, the
relevancy and penetration of the questions asked-
particularly on the basic assumptions of structure
planning-that in many ways the analysis of the insti-
tutional frameworks and procedures is frustratingly brief
similarly in the simultaneous development of the social
process and general-systems standpoint of planning.
The only qualification is that events have overtaken some
of the material and comment in earlier sections of the
book, suggesting the need for more rapid dissemination at
this crucial time .
Those familiar with McLoughlin's work-and there
can remain few workers in any branch of urban studies
who are not-will find yet again his customary qualities
of lucid expression, simplicity of style, ready practical
exemplification and clear distillation of complex ideas .
A rich and vital field of research has been precipitated
by the pressures for planning and government reform .
It is a field in which a considerable amount of the
fundamental work was pioneered by McLoughlin . Yet,
the significance of this book, is less its innovatory
character-more its co-ordination of changing thought
and indications of essential future trends . Inevitably,
considerable ambiguity remains, as this review suggests ;
but the precise focus it gives to a particularly complex
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problem, certainly provides a durable and authorative
threshold in the analysis of British planning and govern-
ment .
University of Reading
Social Patterns in Cities
by B . D . CLARK and M . B. GLEAVE (eds) . London :
Institute of British Geographers . 1973 . pp . 192. £3 . 50
The application of sophisticated statistical techniques to
small area data on the social characteristics of urban
communities has become part of the standard research
equipment of both urban sociology and urban geography .
Moreover, as they have received academic blessing so the
use of such techniques as factorial ecology has spread into
the applied fields of planning and administration . As
Robson says in his foreword to Social Patterns in Cities
factorial ecology has been a `meteoric growth node .'
Behind the fashion, however, lurks the danger that the
uncritical use of sophisticated techniques may represent
no more than a desire to play with the latest toy . Fac-
torial ecology and other techniques of data manipulation
remain techniques rather than theories and their useful-
ness must be judged in terms of their effectiveness at
meeting the demands of theory construction and practice
rather than in terms of their efficacy at transforming
numbers .
Robson is clearly aware of the dangers which may
attend new analytical tools . He points out that the
application of factorial ecology to a large number of
cities has produced a welter of empirical generalisations
but little knowledge of the processes whereby residential
patterns are produced, altered or maintained . In the
geographical literature on urban social structure, Robson
identifies three main trends : a move from aggregate
levels of analysis to a concern with individual behaviour,
especially mobility and perception, a widening of the
historical and geographical universes sampled for study,
and a more conscious incorporation of formal socio-
logical concepts . Examples of each of the trends are to
be found among the papers constituting Social Patterns
in Cities .
Four papers are applications of factorial ecology :
Davies and Lewis analyse 1966 enumeration district data
for Leicester, Evand provides a comparative study of
similar data for Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, Johnston
produces an analysis of New Zealand data and Warnes
looks back to Chorley in the mid-nineteenth century .
Few surprises are forthcoming in any of the studies but
the complex interplay between data, analytical technique
and output receives considerable illumination .
Davies and Lewis provide an exemplary study demon-
strating considerable sensitivity to the problems both of
data input and of analytical model. Their analysis is
based on a set of 56 variables carefully categorised under
demographic, migration, employment, social and occu-
pational, commuting and household headings . Approxi-
mately equal numbers of variables are included in each