The collaborating planner? Practitioners in the neoliberal age

摘要

The idea that planning is a highly complex process, populated by professionals with different values, interests, and motivations, each with its own identity and agenda, is currently a widely accepted view of planning. Despite that, there is an almost complete absence of large-scale empirical studies on the role of planners in the implementation of planning reforms carried out as part of the neoliberal restructuring of the state. This book, by focusing the role of planners in the implementation of planning reforms, fills an important gap in the planning literature. The research is based on exploratory interviews and on a large survey questionnaire focused on the response and reaction of frontline planners to the New Labour reforms between 2004 and 2008 in Britain. The rich empirical evidence and the critical insights provided by Ben Clifford and Mark Tewdwr-Jones into the values, perceptions, and attitudes behind the role of planners in the implementation of planning reforms make the book an important addition to the field of urban/spatial planning studies.