New Urbanisms: From Neo-Traditional Neighbourhoods to New Regionalism - Theme Cities: Solutions for Urban Problems - page 54

and limited modern development. But Rossi questioned whether this export-led
development should be seen as the only, or even the best, winning strategy for the
region. His fieldwork revealed that many of these enterprises were pre-Fordist in
their operations. In other words, the enterprises were often based in poor building
structures with unhealthy working conditions, characterized by low wages, irregu-
lar work, and few rights for workers. Such conditions meant that this employment
growth was exploitive, paralleling the problems found in the growth of low wage
textile production in many developing countries. Moreover, Rossi showed that the
gap between the northern and southern regions of Italy in 2002 was still 20 % in pro-
ductivity, while the employment rate in the active population was over four times
higher in the north. So focusing upon the employment gains had ignored the con-
ditions of these seemingly dynamic workplaces of the south, producing a spatial
injustice in their freedoms, let alone the fundamental issue of regional inequality.
Although this example deals primarily with regionalism at a scale beyond the city-
region, the fact that these exploitive activities occur mainly within the cities of
the Mezzogiorno region show that it is also an urban issue, one of social injustice
that is the subject of Chap. 3 (Just Cities). Such problems are curiously missing
from the first section in the New Urban Charter, except for some brief comments
about the need for affordable housing and sharing revenues and resources among
municipalities.

2﻽9 Conclusions

From a design perspective there is a lot to admire in the various parts of the NU
movement. Most agree that the new communities built on these principles—es-
pecially the 'town' centres of these developments—provide more attractive and
focused places than the typical, faceless suburbs with chaotic and heterogeneous
strip malls that developed from the 1950s (Baldassare 1986 ). However, in practice
relatively few of these NU developments have been created, so they are massively
outweighed by areas built in the last quarter of a century using modifications of
older suburban designs, while apart from some New Regionalism initiatives there
are few signs of really effective regional planning. Since some new suburban and
inner city developments have adopted a few of the NU principles, this may hold
out some hope for greater use of the ideas in future urban developments. Certainly
the charter gave a fillip to the derivation of Smart Growth and Transit Orientated
Development, and through its principle of preservation acknowledged the need to
conserve historical heritages. Yet despite the title of 'new' it can be argued (Fulton
1996 ) that many of the ideas in the NU movements are really revisions of older con-
cepts—although rarely acknowledged—ranging from those seen in nineteenth cen-
tury model towns (Mumford 1961 ), Garden Cities (Howard 1898 ), Perry's ( 1929 )
Neighbourhood Unit Planning (NUP) ideas and subsequent revisions in Radburn
and post-war British New Towns, which is perhaps why the term 'Neo-Traditional
Planning' becomes especially appropriate. However the big difference in NU is