The discipline of sociology can make a distinctive contribution to the development of solutions to land-use issues. Sociology is distinguished from other social science disci plines by its stress on people's moral and emotional motivations and by its concern with criteria of equity and community viability. The effects of land-use patterns on community viability are not as great as is claimed by critics of urban sprawl, and the relationship between exclusionary control of land use and lack of equity in metropolitan areas is ques tionable. There are four analytical approaches for understanding how disagreements over land use are caused and how they may be resolved. It is possible and necessary to choose the approach best suited to a given land-use issue, and the insights of sociology are vital to making such choices.
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