THE NEIGHBOURHOOD CONCEPT IN THEORY AND APPLICATION

Abstract

"Whoever looks into his neighbour's face sees his own image," Lewis Mumford could write in describing neolithic village life of more than six thousand years ago! This mirror image is broken now, and the social unity and cohesion that it reflected and encouraged belongs to another, a lost, era. The mosaic of conflicting and co-operating forces that now bind the members of more complex aggregates into some viable entities have given rise to a different kind of unity among men and multiplied the mirrors into which they look for glimpses of their fleeting identities. No aspect of modern life has escaped this fragmentation and regrouping, and neighbouring is no exception. Not only its meaning, but also its forms and contexts of expression have changed and this calls for changed planning concepts designed to accomodate them. Lewis Mumford, The City in History