Introduction to Regional Planning
Khairul, Kamarudin (August 2013)
Note: this lecture note is based on a book by John Glasson (1978)
Introduction to Regional Planning.
Why Plan?
Planning has been going on throughout history man has a
natural urge to plan, it is part of his organisational make-up.
Planning as one of the basic social drives of society a drive
which is learned in society, and upon the satisfaction of which
rests the survival of society.
Rapid increase in planning private actions and market forces
often resulted in situations which the nation is not willing to
tolerate and which only be improved by means of a control
mechanism PLANNING.
Lack of family planning ?
Lack of economic planning ?
Why Plan?
Problem with the laissez-faire
approach ?
Rapid rise in population (urban
population),
increasing
affluence
and
rampant
technology have all increase
the need for planning.
But what is the control
mechanism called PLANNING?
What is Planning?
A general theory of planning has not yet been written, however
certain features of planning in general, features common to all
types of planning, can be identified.
A sequence of actions which are designed to solve problems
in the future all planning involved a sequential process.
What is Planning?
A sequence of actions how can I get from Kuala Lumpur
to Johor Bharu as quickly as possible? How can an extra
1,000,000 people can be accommodated in Gua Musang
over the period of 2010 2030? How can our company
achieve an income growth rate of 5% per annum?
Friedman (in Glasson, 1978:19):
planning is primarily a way of thinking about social and
economic problems, planning is oriented predominantly towards
the future, is deeply concerned with the relation of goals to
collective decisions and strives for comprehensiveness in policy
and program. Wherever these models of thought are applied,
there is a presumption that planning is being done
Planning frameworks
1. Physical planning
Economic planning
2. Allocative planning
Innovative planning
3. Multi objective planning Single objective planning
4. Indicative planning
Imperative planning
The Need for Regional Planning
As a response to pressing regional issues + pressure from higher
governmental actions.
Two dominant regional issues:
Increasing urbanisation and increasing standard of living and
personal mobility;
Depressed industrial and rural regions suffering from
economy imbalanced.
Other issues existence of separate regional cultures, political
identities and desire for autonomy.
The Need for Regional Planning
urbanisation and increasing standard of living and personal mobility
urbanisation and increasing standard of living and personal mobility
Depressed industrial & rural regions suffering from economy
imbalanced
Divided nation?
Depressed industrial & rural regions suffering from economy
imbalanced
Divided nation?
existence of separate regional cultures, political identities and desire
for autonomy
Regional Planning & the Management
of Regional Development
Regional planning can be seen as an attempt to guide the
development of a region.
Friedman defines regional development as:
Regional development concerns the incidence of
economic growth. It is ultimately the result of the
location of economic activities in response to
differential regional attractions. Shifts in the location
pattern have direct repercussions on income,
employment and welfare. Since spatial organisation is a
function of activity and attraction patterns, regional
development is simply an expression of these patterns
Regional Planning & the Management
of Regional Development
However, the distributional impact of
development may not be even (between
areas and between one person opinion
may not fit into other person interest).
Achieving consensus about future
development is important to encounter
conflicting views.
Consensus might be achieved on ENDS,
but there could be conflict on the MEANS
(how to achieve those ends/solve conflict
policy tools)
Regional Planning & the Management
of Regional Development
But WHO manages this
process
of
regional
development?
Management, in the
societal context involves
the powers of decision to
influence social change.
But still, WHO are they?