This paper focuses on partial models for solving urban problems to contrast our achievements as social scientists with our aspirations as prescribers of public policy. The objectives of this paper are (1) to review some of the reasons that an ideal set of solutions for urban problems has not been produced by social scientists and (2) to describe…

Aside from the growth of world population itself, urbanization is the dominant demographic trend of the late twentieth century. The number of people living in cities increased from six hundred million in 1950 to over two billion in 1986. If this growth continues unabated, more than half of humanity will reside in urban areas shortly after the turn…