Attitudes Towards Urban Systems Analysis: A Survey of the Participants

Abstract

A real sense of community now exists within the fields which comprise urban systems analysis. It has taken twenty years for this community to establish itself, but readers of this book will by now be aware that many of the authors writing here have identified with this area for much of its history. Such a development is perhaps not particularly surprising, although the critiques and prognoses for the field sketched here, emphasize the multitude of difficulties urban systems analysts have faced and continue to face. Nevertheless, a small community of like-minded people now exists and this, it is often argued, represents a fundamental prerequisite for a sustained attack on the major research problems in any field. Commonality of interest and agreement about the key problems facing the field are all important. For example, Fleck (1979) argues that only when such consensus emerges does a scientific community exist, and as the community begins to focus on more detailed problems the differences of opinion become smaller.