Narratives of power: bringing ideology to the fore of planning analysis

This Special Issue starts from the premise that the concept of ideology holds significant analytical potential for planning but that this potential can only be realised if ideology is brought to the fore of analysis. By naming ideology and rendering it visible, we hope to bring it out from the shadows and into the open to examine its value and what it can tell us about the politics of contemporary planning. The papers in this Special Issue therefore seek to contribute to established academic debates by exploring some of the ways ideology can be deployed as a tool in the analysis of planning problems. This article introduces the Special Issue by exploring the various accounts in the papers of i. what ideology is; ii. what its effects are; iii. where ideology may be identified and iv. what different theories of ideology can tell us about planning. There inevitably remain many un-answered questions, paths not taken and debates left unaddressed. We hope other scholars will be inspired (or provoked) to address these omissions in the future

Thinking conjuncturally about ideology, housing and English planning

This paper explores the value of Stuart Hall’s approach to conjunctural analysis for examining the complex relations between ideology and planning. By “thinking conjuncturally” we explore planning as a site where multiple social, economic and political forces coalesce; ideology is one of these forces whose role and influence must be tracked alongside others. To illustrate this we draw on recent and ongoing planning reforms in England and their relationship with housing development. Highlighting the faltering role of a particular ideological formation in ‘suturing together contradictory lines of argument and emotional investments’ (Hall, 2011, 713) around housing and planning, the paper draws attention to planning as a space where ideological struggle takes place within the frame of a broader, contingent cultural hegemony. This struggle may help to reaffirm that hegemony but it can also open space for alternative visions to be articulated, with potential to transform dominant logics of planning and reveal routes to practical and progressive action

‘Opening for business’? Neoliberalism and the cultural politics of modernising planning in Scotland

In this paper I explore how the culture of land-use planning in Scotland has been targeted as an object of modernising reform, exploring how ‘culture change’ initiatives played a prominent role in stabilising a new settlement around ‘open for business’ planning between 2006 and 2012, con- taining potential tensions between diverse goals to make planning more efficient, inclusive and integrative. This highlights the potentially significant role of governance cultures in containing ten- sions and securing consent to processes of state restructuring. I therefore argue that greater empirical attentiveness to the cultural micro-politics of state restructuring can improve under- standing of complex, contemporary dynamics of change, and the contested role of the neoliberal hegemonic project in reshaping urban governance. I conclude by arguing that the continued power of neoliberal critiques of the inefficiency of land-use planning indicate a need to acknowl- edge and engage contemporary cultural battles over the purposes of planning and urban governance.Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Research Trust Grant No. 433info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Anticipations: on the state of the planning imagination

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Attitudinal research on financial payments to reduce opposition to new homes

A report commissioned by the UK Department for Communities and Local Government into the role of financial payments in reducing opposition to new homes

Transformative Knowledge for an era of Planetary Urbanization? Questioning the role of social sciences and humanities from an interdisciplinary perspective

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