TY - JOUR
T1 - Modernist Urban Planning as a Tool of Acculturation: Implications for Sustainable Human Settlement Development in Cameroon
AU - Njoh, Ambe J.
PY - 2013/6/1
Y1 - 2013/6/1
N2 - Modernist urban planning, the version of planning that originated in Western Europe during the post-1850 industrial period, is interrogated as a tool of Western acculturation. Previous studies have focused narrowly on the strategies that have been employed to impose Western spatial structures on non-Western societies. The present study is broader in its focus as it examines implications of supplanting indigenous planning principles and practices with Western varieties. Qualitative techniques employing data culled mainly from secondary sources are employed. Cameroon constitutes the empirical referent of study. It is shown that by supplanting indigenous African practices in the built environment, modernist urban planning has effectively complicated sustainable development efforts in the country. To succeed, the paper concludes, planning initiatives must be contextualized to account for local conditions in Cameroon.
AB - Modernist urban planning, the version of planning that originated in Western Europe during the post-1850 industrial period, is interrogated as a tool of Western acculturation. Previous studies have focused narrowly on the strategies that have been employed to impose Western spatial structures on non-Western societies. The present study is broader in its focus as it examines implications of supplanting indigenous planning principles and practices with Western varieties. Qualitative techniques employing data culled mainly from secondary sources are employed. Cameroon constitutes the empirical referent of study. It is shown that by supplanting indigenous African practices in the built environment, modernist urban planning has effectively complicated sustainable development efforts in the country. To succeed, the paper concludes, planning initiatives must be contextualized to account for local conditions in Cameroon.
KW - Acculturation
KW - Cameroon
KW - Colonialism
KW - Colonial urban planning
KW - Cultural imperialism
KW - Modernist urban planning
UR - https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub/1977
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2013.01.004
UR - https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub/1980
U2 - 10.1016/j.ccs.2013.01.004
DO - 10.1016/j.ccs.2013.01.004
M3 - Article
VL - 4
JO - City, Culture and Society
JF - City, Culture and Society
ER -