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29 Soc. F. 237 (1950-1951)
Social Science Research and the Planning of Urban Neighbourhoods

handle is hein.journals/josf29 and id is 253 raw text is: PLANNING URBAN NEIGHBOURHOODS and the nature of positions; decide what educa tional qualifications of these positions are not now adequately provided; and formulate proposals for such provision by educational institutions. We may conclude that the uncertain nature and limited number of opportunities, or the lack of points of regular recruitment, or the experimentation here and there under way in training programs, make any substantial new programs unjustified or un- timely. The particular result seems to me less important than self-education and cooperation in the enterprise. SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH AND THE PLANNING OF URBAN NEIGHBOURHOODS LEO KUPER University of Birmingham, England IFFICULTIES in social science research, as an auxiliary in the planning of urban neighbourhoods, arise not only from the scope and complexity of the problems involved, but from inadequate definition of planning ob- jectives. The goals of neighbourhood planning are de- rived from two broad concepts of the neighbour- hood, which I shall refer to as an organic concept and an amenity concept. The former is mystical, laden with value judgments and the ambiguous statement of ends, while the amenity concept is relatively precise in its formulation of planning objectives and the means of attaining them. The combination of these two concepts has been a major source of confusion. The analysis of value judgments, the clarification of terms and the un- ambiguous statement of the ends of neighbourhood planning are necessary for useful research in this field. ORGANIC AND AMENITY CONCEPTS These two concepts appear in much of the liter- ature on the urban neighbourhood, and in this article I have selected for illustration, the main official statement in England, the Dudley Report.' This report on the functions of neighbourhood planning by a study group of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning is a recognised part of the equipment of the Town Planner and provides a basis for many of the current neighbourhood plans. I do not intend to criticise the content-some of the principles are now being questioned at a theoretical I Design of Dwellings (London: His Majesty's Sta- tionery Office, 1944), Section 2, being a report on site planning and layout in relation to housing. level-but rather to illustrate the nature of the concepts and the research problems arising from inadequate definition of objectives. The authors start with an organic concept of the town. This is expressed in a broad generalisation in the form of a statement of fact, and it is wedded to a value judgment. The abstract conception of a town has generally been of a single, though complex social organism; the home of a single, though complex, community. So, ideally, it should be still.2 It is true that the meaning is by no means dear. We cannot be sure whether the ideal refers to the objective situation or the subjective appraisal of it. Is the value judgment that towns should be single, though complex organisms? Or is the value judg- ment rather that people should think of the towns in which they live as being organic entities? The second interpretation seems more probable; it is supported by analysis of the grammatical con- struction and by the further exposition of the argument. Something like half the population of England and Wales lives in towns which have a population of over 50,000 .... The town is generally too large to be fully understood as a social unit .... The principle behind the idea of the urban neighbourhood must be not merely to break down the large town into units of a size which will allow a full growth of community spirit and neigh- bourhood feeling, but to ensure that its redevelopment takes place in such a way that each unit, while still essentially but a single part of a greater whole, becomes a comprehensible entity in itself.8 (my italics) 2 Ibid., par. 13, p. 58. 3 Ibid., pars. 14 and 16, pp. 58-59.

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