The promise of planning: Global aspirations and South African experience since 2008 by Philip Harrison and Alison Todes

Abstract

The book covers an expansive range of topics across 14 chapters: international and domestic contexts, South African planning at national, provincial, and municipal scales, the role of organised civil society, the national space economy, spatial transformation, social transformation, environmental challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic, the planning profession, as well as planning education and research. It draws from a wide-ranging review of existing research and from 68 interviews with planners and academics. A key contribution of the book is a review of the many initiatives that have been put in place since 2008. Internationally, this includes the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, the 2016 New Urban Agenda, and the 2016 Paris Agreement. In South Africa, major initiatives include the Cities Support Programme of National Treasury established in 2011, the 2012 National Development Plan, the 2012 National Infrastructure Plan (revised in 2022), the 2013 National Planning Commission Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, the 2014 Infrastructure Development Act, the 2016 Integrated Urban Development Framework, the District Development Model announced in 2019, and the 2022 National Spatial Development Framework. At the municipal scale, innovative policies were introduced on transit-oriented development and inclusionary housing.