Arie Shachar (1935–2006)—Transformations of Israel's Urban Geography

Abstract

Arie Shachar played a key role in the introduction of modern urban geography in Israel, in the shift from the study of Israeli cities in light of global trends to the study of global influences on Israeli cities, and in linking urban geography with urban planning. He had a major role in the emergence of a new planning doctrine, less preoccupied with population dispersal and preservation of agricultural land, and more with economic growth, sustainability, metropolitan planning, and compact development policies. In the modernist-post-modernist debate, Shachar was clearly in the camp of modernists, preferring rational forward-looking planning approaches over critical discourses that challenge fundamental aspects of social and political order. These facets have become defining features of mainstream Israeli urban geography since the 1960s. However, immense growth and diversification of urban geography and the dominance of urbanism in modern societies make it increasingly difficult, in the early 2000s, to define the boundaries of urban geography and its core theories.