ARTICLE CHANGING CITIES: GLOBAL ECONOMICS, URBAN RESTRUCTURING AND PLANNING RESPONSE1 Philip Harrison Introducing a Global Dimension to Urban Studies Traditionally, processes of urbanisation within different countries were treated as essentially separate and isolated phenomena. During the 1970s, however, radical geographers such as Harvey, Castells and Wallerstein established a link between the ebb and flow of urban development and change at a global level. By the mid-1980s this interconnection was more generally recognised. In 1982, for example, Friedmann revived Hall's notion of the 'world city', stimulating considerable interest in global/ local linkages. By 1990, King was able to refer to a major paradigm shift in urban studies and could cite numerous examples of recent urban studies that have been located within a global context. Urban geographers such as Castells (1989,1993) have argued that far-reaching technological and economic transformations areradicallyreshapingthe function, form and character of the city. Clearly, an understanding of such processes of change is crucial to the activities of urban planners. However, as Beauregard (1991:192) has observed, planners have 'lost touch with the prevailing political-economic forces that are restructuring cities and regions in a global context, and, second, have failed to keep pace with concomitant intellectual and cultural forms'. This article explores therelationshipsbetween global economic transformation and urban restructuring, and gives consideration to implications for the practice of planning within South Africa. Global Economic Transformation Writers such as Harvey (1989) have argued that we have entered a new epoch of capitalist development. They regard the period from World War II until the early-1970s as the culmination of 'Fordism' or 'organised capitalism'. This was the era of mass production, mass consumption, Keynesian economic management, centralisation, bureaucratic rigidity, and welfarism. However, they contend that Fordism disintegrated during the 1970s as the global economy was TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) 35 ARTICLE HARRISON thrown into crisis. A new era of 'post-Fordism' or 'disorganised capitalism' is said to have emerged, the characteristics of which include: flexible and small batch production of a variety of product types, flexible use of labour, deregulation, decentralisation, entrepreneurialism, and individualised consumption. This concept of a decisive paradigm shift is problematic as it leads one to overstate change, downplay continuity and obscure geographic and historical contingency. However, an acceptance of local specificity and historical difference should not blind us to common processes of change operating across the globe.2 One of the most fundamental transformations underway at global level is in the field of technology. Manuell Castells (1989, 1993) argues that a scientific revolution has brought about a new technological paradigm focused on information processing and that the informational society is replacing the industrial society as the basic framework of social organisation. Capital spending on information technologies has already overtaken industrial spending while concepts such as the information superhighway, cyberspace, and virtual reality are radically reshaping thinking about the future. This technological revolution is facilitating globalisation, a process whereby national economies are being subsumed into a single integrated world economy. Increasingly, unrestrained movement of capital across the globe is undermining the economic authority of the nation state and the efficacy of macro-economic management Stateless Transnational Corporations (TNCs), operating through decentralised corporate networks, are the prime economic movers of a globalised economy (Reich, 1992). These global processes are reshaping the sectoral structure of the economy at all levels. Many long-established industries have suffered sharp decline while new industries like high tech manufacturing, finances, cultural production, producer services, and tourism have emerged as dynamic nodes of growth. This restructuring has been accompanied by marked change in the organisation of work. Sub-contracting, casual employment and other flexible forms of labour management are a strategic response to greater economic uncertainty. As the levels of secure formal employment have declined, there has been an informalisation of a range of activities. The structure of the workforce has also changed as women have entered the labour market in large numbers. One of the negative consequences of economic and technological restructuring is income and occupational polarisation. At the top of the occupational structure a new professional class is emerging; a class able to operate at a global scale by appropriating new technologies. The number of workers in the middle of the 36 TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) HARRISON ARTICLE occupational structure is shrinking as middle-level managerial jobs and traditional bluecollar jobs are disappearing. At the same time, there has been dramatic growth at the bottom end of the hierarchy with a significant increase in lower order service jobs, informal sector activity and structural unemployment. Castells (1993) refers to a 'new marginality', arguing that the emerging global economy is 'made up at the same time of the global village and of the incommunicability of those communities that are switched off from the global network' (1993:249). Although the global economy encompasses the whole planet, only a small minority of the world's population is truly integrated. A number of theorists have posited a link between this technological and economic change and the new cultural and intellectual landscape referred to as postmodernism. One of the problems with introducing the term 'postmodernism' is its lack of precise meaning. As Featherstone lamented, 'the term is at once fashionable yet irritatingly elusive to define' (1988:195). Dear (1986) suggests that the word 'postmodernism' is being used by different authors to describe a style, a method and an epoch. As a style, postmodernism refers to parallel trends in fields such as music, art, architecture, drama, photography, film and philosophy which have been described by Featherstone (1990:203) using such terms as 'eclecticism', 'stylistic promiscuity', 'celebration of depthlessness', 'parody' and 'pastiche'. As a method, postmodernism is a form of literary analysis concerned with the critical deconstruction of text. As an epoch, postmodernism represents the cultural, social and political practices of a new economic era. Harvey (1989b) defines postmodernism in the epochal sense as 'the cultural logic of late capitalism'.3 Global Change and Urban Restructuring Castells (1993) shows that these global transformations are associated with the reshaping of economic geography at all levels. At the global level, there is a concentration of wealth and power in the North, with the Socialist world having disintegrated and become an appendage of the North. The South (or Third World) is becoming increasingly differentiated with the rapid expansion of East Asia, the relative stagnation of Latin America, and the economic marginalisation of Africa. In terms of regional restructuring, once highly industrialised and prosperous regions like north east England and the Ruhr valley are experiencing decline and de-industrialisation. At the same time, once peripheral areas, such as the 'Third Italy' and the 'American Sunbelt', have become new centres of development and economic dynamism. This spatialrestructuringis clearly also occurring at an urban level. Soja (1989) argued that Fordism had its own distinctive urban geography. He referred to the TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) 37 ARTICLE HARRISON Pordist phase of urban development as the era of the state managed urban system characterised by active planning intervention.4 The generalised economic crisis of the late-1960s and early-1970s set in motion another round of urban restructuring. For Soja, a new set of spatial processes and trends are emerging, but the outcome of this restructuring remains open: 'anew die has not been rigidly cast over the restless landscape' (1989:183). The idea of a 'new city' is captured by terms such as 'the informational city', 'the edge city', 'the global city', 'the network city', 'the creative city', 'the dual city'. However, it is arguable that many of the supposedly new processes are merely a continuation of those that operated in the past. Cooke (1990), for example, rejects the idea that the postmodern city is an overturning of the modern city. For him, it is simply 'a process of development within the shell of the modern city' (1990:333). The city no doubt remains structured by the forces of modem planning and modern urban development but there are new elements, associated with postmodernism, that are being superimposed on the urban fabric. Postmodern urban change includes transformations within urban architecture, urban governance, the spatial structure of urban area, and the function of different cities within the 'international division of labour'. Each of these dimensions of transformation will be considered separately. Urban Architecture The most clearly visible transformation in the urban fabric is the changing style and shape of buildings. The high rise modernist towerblocks have given way to smaller-scale office clusters, waterfront developments, suburban shopping malls, convention centres, refurbished warehouses, and defensive cluster housing. The architecture has shifted dramatically from the stark, unadorned international style to the exotic, eclectic (and sometimes bizarre) postmodern style. Harvey (1989a:91) refers to 'an architecture of spectacle, with its sense of surface glitter and transitory participatory pleasure, of display and ephemerality...'. Urban Governance Harvey (1989b) refers to the shift from managerialism to entrepreneurialism in urban governance. Traditionally, urban governance was focused on the provision of services, facilities, and other social benefits. Increasingly, urban governance is now concerned with the promotion of local economic development through mechanisms of inter-urban competition. Cochrane (1990:292) also observes that the 'language of welfare has been replaced by the language of growth, regeneration and public/private partnership'. 38 TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) HARRISON ARTICLE Urban Form It is widely reported that innovations in information and telecommunication technologies are eroding the importance of the central city as a location and reinforcing processes of decentralisation. There is even a shift of work back into the home. At the same time, however, there are counter processes of centralisation as certain sectors (eg finance and insurance, and specialised professional services) become more concentrated. The spatial outcome of these diverse processes is mediated by socio-political factors and the strategic response of different firms. Fainstein and Fainstein (1991:25) reach the conclusion that economic changes and new technologies are freeing cities from 'the spatial necessities of factory production or of transportation technology' but that there is no particular urban form that can be associated with the new paradigm. There are writers, however, who have suggested that the 'new city* is taking a specific spatial form. For example, Garreau, in his book The Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, points to a reconcentration of activities on the outskirts of American cities. Dieleman et al (1993:244) refers to this as the 'spatial bundling of the suburbanisation process', with the expansion of the city structured around a network of centres on the urban frontier. However, this urban restructuring is spatially contingent. In many European cities, for example, there is re-urbanisation or repopulation of the inner cities associated with gentrification and inner city revitalisation. Clearly, care must be taken before imposing a particular form on the emerging 'postmodern city'. The outcome of the current round of urban restructuring is uncertain as many complex and apparently contradictory trends are at play. There is, however, a particular feature of the postmodern city that is widely reported across the globe. That is, the increasing levels of spatial segregation, captured in the notion of the 'dual city'. The dominant impression of the post-1970s city is the juxtapositioning of glamour and decay. On the one hand we have the new elite fully integrated into the global economy, living a cosmopolitan lifestyle. On the other hand we have an increasingly marginalised, excluded populace who are alienated and threatened by powerful forces of global change, and are struggling to defend their local spaces. The new 'inanagerial-technocratic-political elite" who drive the informational society search for exclusive spaces, removed from the mass of the urban populace. They live in protected residential enclaves, work in luxury office blocks, and patronise eliterestaurants,gourmet shops and private health and sport clubs (Castells, 1993; Marcuse, 1994). At the same time, the marginalised live in conditions of deteriorating urban poverty and environmental decay. Castells (1993:252) suggests that the urban TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) 39 ARTICLE HARRISON space of the 'new marginality' takes two forms: the fust is the 'tolerated ghetto' where the marginalised are permitted to reside conveniently out of the sight of the new rich. The second is the space of the 'street people' who have an uncomfortably open presence in the urban environment The visible glamour of the urban revitalisation of the past two decades often obscures the harsh realities of this worsening urban poverty. For some, the experience of postmodernity is glamour, excitement, new consumption opportunities and unprecedented wealth. For others, it is the loss of secure employment, the disintegration of welfare support, increased urban conflict, social division, environmental decay, and a new sense of helplessness and alienation. Urban Function The emergence of 'world cities' is a common theme in recent international literature. Sassen (1991:5), for example, cites a 'new logic for concentration' and argues that a small number of key cities (particularly London, New York and Tokyo) have developed as 'highly concentrated command points in the organisation of the world economy' (Sassen, 1991:4). Very recently, there has been a reaction to this focus on the large monocentric metropolis, with investigation of complementary or integrated city systems, examples of which include the Netherlands' Randstad, the Rhine conurbation in Germany, and the Kansai region of Japan. The idea is that the polynuclear city may be better adapted to the requirements of an information age.3 For Lambooy (1993), creativity and innovation are central to competition within the new economy. He argues that specialised cities operating within a flexible urban network provide an enabling framework for creativity and innovation. Batten (1994) also challenges the traditional argument that there is a direct correlation between city size and innovative capacity, arguing that this relationship has been undermined by the process of globalisation. Transnational companies are no longer restricted to the creative resources of the mega cities as they are simultaneously located in a large number of urban centres. Smaller urban centres can find prosperity by specialising within a dynamic network of cities. Castells (1993) also refers to the 'network city' and argues the ability of a city to compete in the global economy is largely shaped by its degree of connectivity to the international network of cities. The concept of urban hierarchy is therefore being replaced with this notion of the urban network. 40 TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) HARRISON ARTICLE The South African City With political transformation and the shift towards a more outward-oriented macro-economic policy, South Africa is rapidly integrating into an increasingly globalised economy. There is clear evidence that many of the trends discussed above are being transmitted to South African cities. Our cities are experiencing the glamour investment in shopping malls, waterfront developments, convention centres and office parks. There are also strong indications of a more entrepreneurial form of urban governance with the rise of Local Economic Development (LED) and intensified inter-locality competition. In terms of urban form, there is both European-style gentrification and American-style sprawl. On the urban periphery we have seen emergence of 'silicon landscapes' (eg Midrand/ Verwoerdburg) and the edge city referred to by Garreau. We cannot, of course, simply translate the experience of urban restructuring in North America and Europe to South Africa without giving careful attention to contingency and contextuality.6 The peculiar history of urbanisation in South Africa must be taken into account. During the past two decades or so there has been a strong academic and policy interest in urban South Africa. Within geography, for example, urban studies has been one of the strongest sub-disciplines. There have, however, been very few attempts to discuss the South African city in relation to the international literature on global restructuring and spatial change. This failure to link the global and the local may be an important weakness within current thinking around South African cities. It is true that urban theorists writing within various strands of a neo-marxian framework during the 1980s located their work within the context of the development of global capitalism.7 However, as Soja (1995:128) acknowledged with reference to international thinking, changes within global capitalism have meant that marxian analysis 'is no longer as diagnostically powerful as it once was'. Theorists have begun casting about for new explanatory tools. The few recent attempts to engage with literature on global transformations include Rogerson (1994), Tomlinson (1993), Wilkinson (1994), Bond (1992) and Mabin (1995). Tomlinson (1994) has discussed the economic development of South African cities in relation to global change while Rogerson (1994) has considered the relevance of industrial districts and other spatial dimensions of globalisation to the South African context. Wilkinson (1994) considered the development of the Cape Town waterfront in relation to the global shift towards entrepreneurialism and postmodernity. Hindson and Morris (1995) provide a compelling survey of the development of the South African city. Although this account is not located within the context of global transformation, it clearly illustrates the shift from the highly regulated TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) 41 ARTICLE HARRISON apartheid city to the less controllable and more spatially flexible city of the 1990s. Although the evolution of the South African city is rooted in a very specific context, the broad trajectory of development corresponds in many ways to that of other cities throughout the world. Using the basic framework of regulation theory, Hindson and Morris (1995) argue that apartheid-based spatial management was part of the regulatory framework that supported the economic expansion and political stability that continued through the 1960s. However, from the mid-1970s, the apartheid city became increasingly less manageable as the underlying contradictions, costs and inefficiencies of the system became more apparent and the political mobilisation against apartheid intensified. Territorial apartheid had been an effective mechanism of spatial and political control but the government was now increasingly less able to regulate the form and pace of urbanisation. By the early-1990s, for example, land invasions were being carried out brazenly in the full view of all. As territorial apartheid collapsed there were abortive attempts to liberalise urban management within the broad framework of apartheid but by the 1990s it was apparent to the state that the only viable alternative was a negotiated process of deracialisation and urban restructuring. A plethora of urban-based negotiation forums emerged at this time. Hindson and Morris suggest that, by 1992, it was possible to detect a growing consensus around housing and urbanisation policy. The new orthodoxy of urban development focuses on the compaction and reintegrab'on of the fragmented apartheid cities through densification, inner city development, infill, and the creation of intra-metropolitan 'activity corridors'. This new orthodoxy is a response to nationally-specific conditions but may be naive in view of forces of change operating at a global level that are reshaping our cities. Moss (1989:535) cited Webber who wrote that 'the glue that once held spatial settlement together is now dissolving, and that settlement is dispersing over ever-widening terrains'. This is arguably an overstatement but cities are continually being transformed and reconstituted in response to wider processes of change and urban form is increasingly less defined. At a time when the dominant urban planning paradigm is celebrating the compact city, wider forces of change may be shaping the urban fabric in a very different way. Urban Change: Contingent Responses It is evident that traditional planning instruments are increasingly inappropriate as a response to contemporary urban restructuring. Modern town planning, which has been so instrumental in shaping the twentieth century city, seems impotent in the face of the powerful forces that are currently reshaping our cities. Town 42 TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) HARRISON ARTICLE planning originated from within the modern reform movement as a reaction to the physical degradation, health hazards and functional chaos of the nineteenth century industrial city. Beauregard (1989) argues that, today, these inherited concerns for orderliness, functional integration and social homogeneity are incompatible with the spatially problematic and flexible urban form associated with the postmodern city. Castells (1992) questions the efficacy of zoning and other town planning regulation in the context of a continual formation and reformulation of space in response to ever-changing global trends. For Beauregard (1989:389) 'modernist planners are in the grip of postmodern helplessness'.8 There are those who would respond to this 'postmodern helplessness' by reasserting modern planning. Bond (1992:54), for example, calls for the rationally planned reconstruction of South African cities: can designers and architects not rather collectively support the transformation of cities ... by way of providing the 'large scale, metropolitan-wide, technologically rational and efficient urban plans', thoroughly permeated with the search for justice in spatial organisation, so desperately needed in order to move from apartheid to post-apartheid without postmodernism'. Other writers (eg Mabin, 1995) acknowledge the actuality of contemporary postmodern circumstances and the need to come to terms with the complexities of this new environment. If traditional town planning responses are no longer effective and grand visions for planned urban reconstruction are Utopian and even dangerous in view of then- unintended consequences, what then is an appropriate response to the 'postmodern urban condition'? It has been argued, for example, that the logic of market forces should not be resisted and that the changing patterns of growth and decline are the natural adaptation of localities to global change.9 This approach implies, however, an acceptance of whatever the market may bring, an abandonment of any normative commitment to reform, justice and progress and assent to the segregation and social polarisation of the dual city. In any event, few cities would be willing to leave their fate to the vagaries of global change. The experience of a number of North American and European cities has shown that strategic intervention by local actors can make a difference and that policy is able to assist cities in adapting to global trends. These global processes clearly impose sharp constraints on local action but, as Judd and Parkinson (1990) argue, cities are not merely helpless pawns of global change; they are able to influence their own destinies. The familiar slogan 'think global, act local' has resonance here. Recent academic debate and practical experience suggests the emergence of a new and more appropriate paradigm of urban development focused around the concepts of partnership and networking. TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) 43 ARTICLE HARRISON Partnerships The idea of partnerships has rapidly emerged as the dominant theme within locality-based development initiatives in South Africa. Internationally, the current concept of partnership had its origins within American and British public policy in the 1970s (Mitchell-Weaver and Manning, 1992). In Britain, the concept of partnership in development was introduced by the Labour administration but became a major focus of the Thatcher administration's urban policy after 1979 as the local authority-led partnerships of the 1970s gave way to the business-led partnerships of the 1980s. These partnerships brought a new dynamism into the development process, with the project management skills, business acumen and financial resources of the private sector. However, the record of these partnerships in terms of the principles Of democracy, equity and accountability was less impressive. In the United States, the Reagan administration adopted the public-private partnership - initially pioneered by the Carter administration - as its primary strategy for urban development. However, in the United States, partnerships tended to take a more progressive form than in Great Britain. Triangular partnerships involving the private sector, the public sector and community-based organisations (CBOs) have provided CBOs access to resources at a time of dwindling public subsidy and have given private and public sector initiatives a root in the local community. These broader partnerships have been referred to as 'urban coalitions'. The concept of partnerships was introduced into 'third world' development programmes by international agencies such as the USAID, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Although development of the partnership concept in the 1980s was strongly associated with the dominant neo-liberal ideology, there is no necessary linlv between the two. As Mitchell-Weaver and Manning (1992) argue, partnerships are not equivalent to the promotion of a 'free market' economy as they are, in fact, corporatist in nature. They represent private-public planning in a mixed economy which 'lets the private sector into the halls of government and government into the boardrooms of industry* (1992:49). For Mitchell-Weaver and Manning partnerships do not constitute a development strategy but are primarily a set of institutional relationships between government, the private sector and civil society that could take a variety of forms. Partnerships imply recognition that there are a range of groups in society that have legitimate interests in development They are also a response to the diffusion of power from centnl governments towards a plethora of institutions located throughout society. Internationally, governments are increasingly less able to implement development programmes without the support and active 44 TRANSFORMATION 28 (1905) HARRISON ARTICLE participation of key interest groups. It is no coincidence that, in South Africa, partnerships came to the fore as government powers were progressively eroded during the transitional period in the early- 1990s. Even with a new democratically elected government, it is evident that government plans for reconstruction and development require the support of key power blocs such as business and organised labour. In the context of urban development, the possibilities for effective sustained action depends increasingly on the ability to secure consensus and forge coalitions amongst diverse actors. It is arguable that negotiated urban restructuring within urban coalitions or broadly-based partnerships is the only viable response to contemporary conditions. Partnerships come in many forms and should be approached with due caution but, if sufficiently inclusive and participatory, they may well provide 'a third way into the 21st century' (Weaver and Dennert, 1987:435). There is increasing evidence that partnerships have played a key role in the metamorphosis of a number of cities that were suffering decline in the 1970s and early-1980s. Urban Networking The notion of networking has moved onto centre stage during the 1990s. The idea of networking is, firstly, related to developments in technology. While the focus during the 1980s was on the personal computer and the individual workstation, the trend in the 1990s is towards integration, with networking allowing for the emergence of a global information superhighway. Another significant and related advance is that towards systems and software integration and the linking of computing and telecommunication technologies. Integration of workstations and technologies increasingly enables various new forms of co-operation, sharing of information and networking between individuals, firms and even cities. Secondly, various forms of networking have emerged as a response to the intensified inter-firm and inter-locality competition that has followed in the wake of globalisation, the decline of the nation state and the deregulation of regional policy. Dommergues (1992) shows how the notion of collaborative networking has evolved over the past two decades. During the late-1970s, it was the multinational firms that discovered the value of joint venture agreements and other forms of co-operation with their competitors. In the 1980s, with the discovery of the 'Third Italy' and the concept of flexible specialisation, small and medium-sized enterprises explored the value of co-operative relationships. In the 1990s, territorially-defined communities have recognised the importance of networking. With reference to Europe, Dommergues (1989:7) wrote: 'we are TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) 45 ARTICLE HARRISON witnessing the explosion of paradiplomacy. Cities, administrative areas, and regions are multiplying their alliances and developing policies independent of the State's'. City networking is an alternative to destructive beggar-thy-neighbour inter-locality competition. While inter-locality competition is inevitable and even positive, networking as an urban strategy accepts that there are opportunities for specialisation, exchange and co-operation. As Camhis and Fox (1992:6) state: 'networks can help cities achieve things they cannot achieve individually'. The idea of city networking has deep historical roots. In medieval Europe, for example, the Hanseatic League was a network of cities to facilitate trade. These city networks were, however, eclipsed by the rise of the modern nation state. However, in the past decade, as the economic authority of the nation state has declined, various forms of inter-locality co-operation, networking and alliances have cross-cut previous boundaries. These networks have ranged from informal loose contacts to more formalised and structured forms of alliance and co-operation (Martinos and Humphrey, 1992). In the European Community, for example, there are now at least twelve formal urban networks operating at various scales and serving different purposes. Forms of co-operation could relate to: - research and development networks, - transfer of technology, - teaching, training and professional development, - co-operation between firms, - sharing of services and common infrastructure, - sharing of specialised human skills, - inter-regional centres, - joint data bases, - joint projects (eg major infrastructural development), - exchange of information and experience (eg student exchange, technical - joint marketing of a group of cities. These networks are facilitated by advanced communication systems, interconnecting infrastructure, and interlocking grids of universities, firms, consultants, training centres and so on. It is arguable that in this age of globalisation, growth and development requires integration and networking and that even a small city can be competitive if it is part of a larger network: For a modem [European] city, international projection is a question of life or death: its capacity to progress depends on how 46 TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) HARRISON ARTICLE deep its exchange relationships are - as regards technologies, products, information, services, capital, people -that provide it with innovation inputs and opportunities for expansion. As a consequence, a city should not only be competitive with respect to other cities both in Europe and the rest of the world, but it should also establish complementary relationships (Borja, 1992:23). Conclusion As Castells (1992:73) has written: 'We are living in the midst of a fundamental process of historical change that is affecting the intellectual and social foundations of planning and its practice'. The title of a short article by Castells (1992) encapsulated the nature of the challenge for planners: "The world has changed: can planning change?' In terms of urban development, traditional planning approaches sit uncomfortably in the context of the current round of urban restructuring. New approaches and paradigms should be sought It is, perhaps, in partnerships and networking that we can find a meaningful way forward. NOTES 1. This is a version of a paper presented to the conference of the South African Institute of Town and Regional Planners held in Cape Town in September 1994.1 wish to thank the Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission (NTRPQ for help in funding the research project of which this is a byproduct However, the opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not represent the views of any institution. 2. Hirst and Zeitlin (1991), for example, refer to the 'staggering generalisations' of post-Fordist theory. A recognition of the indeterminacy of change comes from several writers who argue for 'flexible specialisation' (the primary characteristic of post-Fordism) as 'a contingent local outcome, not an inexorable process of contemporary capitalist development (Levering, 1990:170). There is enormous variation in the outcome of global processes at local level that may be obscured by generalised concepts like post-Fordism. 3. The characteristics of the postmodern epoch can be captured in words such as diversity, scepticism, decentering, entrepreneuriah'sm, indeterminacy, localism, individualism, eclecticism, deconstruction, pluralism, spectacle, consumerism, pragmatism and ephemerality. 4. This was the era of inner city renewal, mass standardised public housing and the building of new towns. 5. See, for example, Lambooy 1993; Batten 1994; Graham 1994; and Castells 1993. 6. This history includes: the historical legacy of apartheid planning ( eg the townships), 'orderly urbanisation' of the PW Botha era (eg site-and-service on the urban periphery), the TRANSFORMATION 28 (1995) 47 ARTICLE HARRISON programme of industrial deconcentration (eg Rosslyn , Atlantis, Hammarsdafe on the metropolitan edge); the accelerated urbanisation of the late-1980s following the lifting of influx control (eg the rapid growth of peripheral informal settlement); and, the land invasions of the 1990s (eg Cato Manor). 7. For example. Bond, Hendler, Hindson, Mabin, Me Carthy, Smit. 8. To a limited extent, trends in pl»iyij«g have reflected the shift to postmodernism, with a new emphasis on deregulation, diversity, mixed landuses, greater local content, eotiepreneurialism and a more modest and incrementalist style. However, in many respects planning remains within an essentially modernist mode. 9. 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