Inch, A. (2012) Deconstructing spatial planning: reinterpreting the articulation of a new ethos for English local planning. European Planning Studies, 20 (6). 1039 - 1057. ISSN 0965-4313
Abstract
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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2012 Taylor & Francis. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in European Planning Studies. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Urban Studies & Planning (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 17 Mar 2014 11:38 |
Last Modified: | 17 Mar 2014 11:38 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2012.673564 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/09654313.2012.673564 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:78114 |