Planning Practice: Critical Perspectives from the UK

Planning Practice: Critical Perspectives from the UK provides the only comprehensive overview of contemporary planning practice in the UK. Drawing on contributions from leading researchers in the field, it examines the tools, contexts and outcomes of planning practice. Part I examines planning processes and tools, and the extent to which theory and practice diverge, covering plan-making, Development Management, planning gain, public engagement and place-making. Part II examines the changing contexts within which planning practice takes place, including privatisation and deregulation, devolution and multi-level governance, increased ethnic and social diversity, growing environmental concerns and the changing nature of commercial real estate. Part III focuses on how planning practice produces outcomes for the built environment in relation to housing, infrastructure, economic progress, public transport and regeneration. The book considers what it means to be a reflective practitioner in the modern planning system, the constraints and opportunities that planners face in their daily work, and the ethical and political challenges they must confront.

Jessica Ferm is Lecturer in Planning and Urban Management and coordinator of the Bartlett School of Planning’s "Planning Practice" module. She is a practice-focused academic with research interests in the intersections between spatial planning and the economy. She is actively involved in planning in London. Prior to academia, she worked for 10 years in planning practice.

John Tomaney is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. His work focuses on the governance of local and regional development and spatial planning and the political, social and cultural foundations of regions. Prior to this post at UCL, he was Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University.