Suchergebnisse

The article focusses on the penetration of western town planning ideology into the administrative and urban culture of Nepal. In the Valley of Kathmandu the physical and social settings of three pre-industrial Hindu-Buddhist townships have survived. They came under western influence and gradually began to change only after the political change in 1951. Urban planning was introduced from 1962 onwards by foreign experts. The emerging planning organisation and the professional output of the newly established department, however, was unable to cope with the existing problems, such as haphazard urban growth, land speculation, and the overcrowed and deteriorating traditional city cores where the majority of the urban poor live. Planning activities have a strong bias towards the stimulation of tourism and thus benefit the foreign visitor and the upper strata of the Nepalese society more than the mass of the urban population. The failure of urban planning is mainly due to three shortcomings: 1) The really important investments are decided, financed, and implemented outside the formal planning system. These projects are 'planned' in accordance with the vested interests of a few ruling families and the funds made available by the donors of foreign aid. 2) The imported sophisticated planning system does not work in the peculiar bureaucratic structure of Nepal, where administration and politics are closely bound together. 3) The imported planning technology is inappropriate to the prevailing sociocultural patterns of the still predominantly traditional urban societies. On the other hand the rich human resources existing in the traditional urban culture have not yet been tapped. These would provide substantial skills for indigenous management and for a more self-sustaining process of local development. The article concludes with the discussion of alternative strategies which are more appropriate to the situation and the problems in Nepal.

Der Aufsatz befaßt sich mit dem Eindringen westlicher Stadtplanungs-Ideologie in die Stadtkultur Nepals. Im Tal von Kathmandu sind drei vorindustrielle hinduistisch-buddhistische Städte erhalten. Erst nach den politischen Veränderungen von 1951 gerieten sie unter westlichen Einfluß und die Stadtplanung wurde nach 1962 von ausländischen Experten eingeführt. Die neuen Planungs- und Verwaltungsstrukturen erwiesen sich aber als ganz ungeeignet zur Bewältigung der städtischen Probleme in Nepal (Bodenspekulation, Überfüllung und Verschlechterung der Wohnverhältnisse in den Stadtkernen). Die Planungsaktivitäten sind stark an der Förderung des Tourismus orientiert und nützen vor allem den ausländischen Besuchern und den oberen Schichten der Bevölkerung. Der Fehlschlag der Stadtplanung hat vor allem drei Gründe: 1. Die tatsächlich wichtigen Investitionen werden außerhalb des Planungssystems entschieden, finanziert und durchgeführt. Diese Projekte entsprechen den Interessen der regierenden Familien und den Vorstellungen der auswärtigen Geldgeber. 2. Das importierte, komplizierte Planungsystem paßt nicht zu den bürokratischen Strukturen Nepals. 3. Die importierte Planungstechnologie ist ungeeignet für eine weitgehend traditionale städtische Gesellschaft. Andererseits könnte gerade diese alte Stadtkultur den Ansatz für eine eigenständige, angemessenere Stadtentwicklung bieten. Abschließend diskutiert der Aufsatz alternative Strategien der Stadtplanung, die den Problemen Nepals besser entsprechen könnten. (KAÜbers)

Over the past two decades it has become widely recognized that housing issues have to be placed in a broader framework acknowledging that civil society in the form of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and their allies are increasingly networking and emerging as strong players that cannot easily be overlooked. Some of these networks have crossed local and national boundaries and have jumped political scales. This implies that housing issues have to be looked at from new angles: they can no longer simply be addressed through localized projects, but rather at multiple scales. The current debate is largely limited to statements about the relevance of individual organizations for local housing processes and tends to overlook the innovativeness in terms of re-scaling those processes and of influencing institutional change at various levels by transcending national boundaries. There is a significant lack of a systemic understanding of such globally operating grassroots networks and how they function in the housing process. This book brings together different perspectives on multi-scalar approaches within the housing field and on grassroots' engagement with formal agencies including local government, higher levels of government and international agencies. By moving away from romanticizing local self-initiatives, it focuses on understanding the emerging potential once local initiatives are interlinked and scaled-up to transnational networks.--

Unter Urbanisierung werden komplexe und irreversible Prozesse des gesellschaftlichen Wandels verstanden, die im Wachstum städtischer Siedlungs- und Wirtschaftsformen und in großen Agglomerationen ihren Ausdruck finden. Urbanisierung gilt als Motor der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, gleichzeitig wird sie oft von einer Polarisierung der Einkommensverhältnisse begleitet.