Rethinking national urban policies: Lessons for South Africa

A review of the international literature concerning the goals, type and implementation of national urban policies is undertaken. Attention is drawn particularly to the relevance for South African policy debates of the second wave of writings on national urban policy during the late 1980s. It is asserted that a spatial strategy should be de‐emphasized in favour of a broadly‐based, “space‐blind” national urban policy integrated with overall economic planning. Nonetheless, it is cautioned that the new emphasis in the literature on national urban policies must not result in a neglect of government's basic role in poverty eradication and redistribution.