planning problem and the planner's solution

A case could be made that the urban planning profession in its widest sense to include all those people somehow influential in managing and planning the city,it have tended to view the problem of the city in technological and material terms. if area of the city are characterized by obsoletehousing then the answer is seen to be slum clearance and the building of better housing. if the city is growing too large then current wisdom proposes that its surrounds should be designated as GREEN BELT in which futher development is prohibited.
Not suprisingly neither of these solution really solves anything.Slums are not a simple function of the type or age of building, but a phenomenon which results from the complex socisl and economic force underlying society and which determine the competitive nature of the housing market. the result of slum claerance in an area has therefore been that the problem. Slums have simply often moved to another part of the city (HARVEY,1973).Similarly the act of designating a Green Belt ignores the fact that population growth might continue to occur because of say the growth of employment within the city attracting additional workers from elsewhere. the result of such planning action maybe that densities increase in the city as more workers seek residence close to their employment and finally settlements beyong the green belt expand to cope with the continued influx of commuter families (EVANS,1973).So that ultimately the urban region may become geographically larger than it might have done if no action had been taken.