Thirty Years of Magical Planning and the Reluctant Pragmatic Turn

This chapter explores the evolution of economic development planning discourse in South African cities from 1994 to the present day. Drawing on the life and death of three urban policy concepts, “Local Economic Development”, “Transit-oriented Development” and “Smart Cities”, this paper contrasts the situational merits of normative planning in the post-conflict / nation-building period (1994-2008) with its role in the subsequent economic malaise gripping South African cities. Out of necessity rather than Damascene conversion, the South African body politic is implicitly reassessing the role of the State in the realisation of its economic objectives. Heralding an incipient pragmatic turn, policymakers are reluctantly looking to private initiative to deliver public goods in the vacuum left by State failure.