Deconstructing spatial planning: reinterpreting the articulation of a new ethos for English local planning

This article reviews recent debates about the emergence of “spatial planning” as a new ethos for English planning, suggesting that continued uncertainty around the term's use is partly caused by a failure to consider its emergence as the product of a contested political process. Drawing on an interpretive approach to policy analysis, the article goes on to show how this new organizing principle is a complex articulation of different and potentially contradictory reform impulses. The result is to destabilize the concept of spatial planning, showing how it has been constructed as an “empty signifier”, an unstable and tension-filled discursive stake in an ongoing politics of reform. Finally, it is argued that this has significant implications for the ways in which implementation success and failure should be understood and for analysis of planning reform initiatives and systems more widely

Rethinking construction innovation and research A review of government R and D policies and practices

DTI/pub 5878. URN 02/641Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m02/21658 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Improving urban parks, play areas and green spaces Urban research report

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m02/25767 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Improving urban parks, play areas and green spaces Urban research report

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m02/25767 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Code of Practice for Tracing Employers' Liability Policies Annual review statement 1 November 1999 - 30 October 2000

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3292.77685(1999-2000) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Dynamic testing of grandstands and seating decks

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m02/27943 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Contemporary public library provision in England: a content analysis of the highest and lowest scoring inspection reports

This article adds to the literature on public services inspection by tracking the evolution of the BV inspection process within the service specific context of English public library provision. Drawing upon a range of policy documentation and a longitudinal content analysis of the highest and lowest scoring BV library inspection reports, the article draws attention to the reports' coverage of the libraries' procedures for income generation, competition, outsourcing and public-private partnership. This focus is used both as a means to examine the argument that contemporary public sector reform measures have led to the increased liberalisation and commercialisation of public libraries and to check the stability of the inspection processes over time. The findings from this analysis reveal that although the content of much of the early policy documentation and initial inspection reports lend support to the increased commercialisation and liberalisation argument, a slightly more balanced picture emerges when this analysis is extended to include the findings from more recent library inspection reports. In reaching these conclusions, however, broader question marks about the longer-term stability of the inspection process are also raised