Localizing Mobile Planning Models: The translation of the British New Town Model into South Africa's urban planning practices

One of the most influential models for planning and building cities from scratch is the British New Town Model. This distinct model originates from towns built in post-war Britain as a remedy to overcrowding and congestion in conurbations and as a tool for building a new, open society. Drawing upon assumptions and objectives of the postwar British town planning movement, this sweeping model of urban modernity has circulated worldwide and shaped practices of urban planners, developers and architects far beyond its European origin. Also, cities in South Africa have promoted this model of a “good city” by creating large-scale peri-urban settlements and independent cites to accommodate urban growth and to address scattered ad hoc developments. However, translating the urban design principles into South Africa’s Apartheid regime of institutionalized racial segregation required altering internationally accepted constructions of socially-mixed and self-contained communities. While several physical design elements of South Africa's New Towns strongly resemble their European counterparts, their socio-economic principles are appropriated to local conditions and represent surprisingly different political motives. Building on urban policy mobility research and STS-inspired critique on notions of policy transfer, we explore how the New Town Model was transferred to South Africa, how it was translated into local urban planning practices and how it has produced segregated forms of urbanism. Based on two in-depth empirical case studies on Cape Town’s New towns Mitchell's Plain and Atlantis, we provide evidence for a non-linear urban policy transfer and uncover the ambivalent local consequences of the translation of this urban model.