THE SOCIAL BASIS OF PHYSICAL PLANNING--II.

The article discusses social basis of physical planning in Great Britain. The analysis of the geographical structure of society, in town and country, with respect to the character and extent of the existing service and community areas affords a sound and essential basis for the planning of communities in the city, the town, and, the countryside. In Britain the problem of rural depopulation has been there for almost a century, yet there is virtually no work on the analysis of the anatomy of rural community on a geographical basis. This field of research has developed tardily in Britain owing to the lack of clear perception of the main issues involved and of a systematic attack upon them. The future physical planning of town and country must reverse the procedure of the past and seek to base the future settlement upon sound principles of community life. Herein lie the opportunity and the duty of the social sciences to elaborate principles and standards for the future planning of settlement on the land and in the towns, and for the re-organization of the local-government areas based, above all, upon a thorough analysis, district by district, of the existing structure of society in its geographical aspects.