Is there space for better planning in a neoliberal world? Implications for planning practice and theory

Planning’s normative aspirations are open to criticism for their idealism and impracticality in the face of economic forces. The question underlying this paper therefore is how far space – conceptual and practical – exists for better planning? The argument uses empirical evidence drawn from an unremarkable planning case not as a source of explanation but to probe how events (and hence planning) might have been different and therefore could be different in the future. What choices were overlooked? What questions might have been asked? What alternative outcomes were possible?