This article explores the ideological roots of planning in Namibia over the past century and how these have influenced practice. The article generally argues that a positivist approach to urban and regional planning in Namibia promoted the ideologies of the South African colonial government during the preindependence years. Furthermore, it is argued that planning is normative and bound by sociocultural and political contexts, evidenced within the postindependence era by a rapid shift to political and fiscal decentralization and the pursuit of market capitalism, with negative consequences for social and economic development in Namibia.
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