Structuralism and its effect on Urbanism

Structuralism is a school of thought and a way of exploring the issues that comes from four close intellectual sphere: French sociology and Durkheim's ideas, Saussure's linguistics, Kant's philosophical roots and English and French anthropology. Structuralists always try to pull over the appearance of the things and achieve the constant and unchangeable principles; So pass the boundaries of philosophy and enter to mathematics, literature, architecture and even urbanism.
They believe that the form or structure as a clear or hidden general framework of anything is the system that in which all components of the organization are related together and have harmonic function. With this communication and coordination they build the totality of the system and the existence of the organization depends on this harmonious relationship. Structuralists generally believed to holistic and this idea led to post-structuralism movement. From the post-structuralism perspective, this approach has a dominant and authoritarian nature and specify the function of the system formerly. Post-structuralism refuse any theory that explain general and universal explanation of the phenomenon, and any holistic and integrity considered inappropriate.
In this article according to Saussure and Kant views, general discussion of structuralism reviewed and then the quality of the genesis and the characteristics of post-structuralism movement have been studied. In continue to rely on this belief of structuralists - as the body of every living being has a basic building and other organs work in the main building consequently – city as an organism has been studied and the view of structuralist urban planners has been expressed.