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A methodology is described for the utilization of ecosystem concepts in land-use issues of urban development and urban design. The issues are discussed of utilizing science specialists to develop in-depth understanding of ecosystem structure and function, synthesizing the information into usable form, and communicating the ecosystem knowledge to engineers, architects, landscape architects, and planners. Case studies from Ontario and New York illustrate some of the difficulties and opportunities in this kind of interprofessional work. The issue of identifying who is an ecologist and the related matter of professionalization are then discussed.

Expanded interest in socio-economic problems have created new opportunities for the urban planning profession. Because of their emphasis on physical and land-use aspects of the city, traditional educational programs in urban planning have been unable to deal adequately with these new opportunities. Changes in program orientation and emphasis to meet these new challenges have started to take place in some urban planning departments. It remains to be seen how effective some of these changes will be over the long run. This paper considers some current aspects of urban planning education. The role of professional education in our society is examined along with the role of science in planning. Based on this analysis, a framework is proposed for the future growth of professional education in urban planning. Because of its strong orientation towards a “science of planning”, this proposal appears to be somewhat different than other changes currently being considered in some urban planning programs.

T HE student of social change can do no better, it would seem to me, than continually to remind himself that society exists both as product and as process. If the energies of men are merged and channeled in a hundred different processes to result in a hundred different social products, we can assert that the process is essentially one of change, but the product is essentially one of social order. Continuous changes are thus essential to the maintenance of an adjusting and readjusting social organization. In the ongoing trend of society the process is social change, but the end-product is the development of social order. In such an analysis it is customary to point out an economic process which produces the economic equilibrium, a cultural process which hands down the cultural heritage, and a political process which serves to focus the energies of men on the decisions that must be made as new issues anrise. Certainly in the Aristotelian sense politics is the policy-maling process. It is within the framework of social dynamics that the concept of social planning finds its place.' If society were static, as it obviously is not, social planning would have the task of changing the social order from one state of inertia to another. Just as there is no final stage of order at which we presume social dynamics will halt, there is no final plan with which the process of planning will cease. Planning is both product and process and from the dynamic point of view, the process is of greater importance than any particular product. While planning represents an important reaction against the static view of society, it has met varied responses from both the students and the proponents of social change. In a foreword to a valuable book on social planning we read these words of dissent by Herbert Read

El presente ensayo indaga acerca de las raíces de la educación montessoriana, pionera de concepciones holistas. Como resultado, se evidencia que únicamente puede ser abordada desde un paradigma de la complejidad y del compromiso con el destino de la humanidad. Solo una comprensión más amplia de su teleología, antropología y epistemología, nos proporcionará la perspectiva que permita integrar estas dimensiones. Con una introducción que parte de la primera costarricense en poner en práctica su filosofía, la preclara Carmen Lyra, se aborda la multi-texualidad, complejidad y trasdisciplinareidad de Montessori, así como sus contingencias y su época, indagación necesaria para sopesar su necesidad hoy. A search for Montessori’s roots concludes that an authentic Montessori education, pioneer in holistic conceptions, can only be addressed from a paradigm of complexity, a Transdisciplinary perspective, and an attitude of compromise with the destiny of humanity. Only an all-encompassing understanding of her teleology, anthropology, and epistemology will provide a perspective to integrate these dimensions. In relating Montessori’s circumstances and life-experiences, a parallel is made to the challenges faced by the first practicing Montessorian in Costa Rica, Carmen Lyra, educator, writer, activist, and founding-member of the Costa Rican Communist Party. Montessori’s multi-texuality, contingencies and the quotidien are addressed in an effort to outline her relevance today.

A review of David L. Brown and Kai A. Schaft, Rural People and Communities in the 21st Century: Resilience and Transformation (Polity, 2011) and Rob Garbutt, The Locals: Identity, Place and Belonging in Australia and Beyond (Peter Lang, 2011).