Urbanism aims at creating a physical environment which has a utilitarian, S-cul, & aesthetic function. For practical reasons, the S-cul & aesthetic aspects can be taken together, as the visual aspect. Public administration is able to understand & control the utilitarian aspect, but not, at least not sufficiently, the visual aspect. Quoting K. Mannheim, it is argued that, in a democratic society, all knowledge is supposed to be essentially comprehensible to everyone. Art, however, belongs to a domain of 'connoisseurship', that is not accessible to all. A democratized culture therefore is inclined to devalue this type of knowledge as not communicable & demonstrable, ie, not 'exact'. 2 means are discussed, by which competent public control of the physical planning process might be furthered: (1) To adopt more 'objective' methods in presenting the visual aspects of a plan. According to Mannheim, this may be done by directing the attention of the public & the decision-makers to the visual elements which constitute the whole (articulation). In that way, those elements gain in communicability. (2) Educ in 'connoisseurship', eg, by MM of COMM. AA.
