This book addresses the influences of planning cultures and histories on the temporal evolution of planning systems and spatial development. As well as providing an international comparative perspective on these issues, the contributions to the book also engage in a search for new conceptual frameworks and alternative points of view to better understand and explain these differences. The book makes three main academic contributions. First, it catalogues some of the key changes in planning systems and the impact on spatial development patterns. Second, it examines the interrelationship between planning cultures and histories from a path-dependency perspective. Third, it discusses the variations in physical development patterns resulting from different planning cultures and histories. Chapters from different parts of the European continent present evidence at different scales to illustrate these aspects. In all cases, the specific combinations of political, ideological, social, economic and technological factors are important determinants of urban and regional planning trajectories as well as spatial development patterns. This book was previously published as a special issue of European Planning Studies.

This book addresses the influences of planning cultures and histories on the temporal evolution of planning systems and spatial development. As well as providing an international comparative perspective on these issues, the contributions to the book also engage in a search for new conceptual frameworks and alternative points of view to better understand and explain these differences. The book makes three main academic contributions. First, it catalogues some of the key changes in planning systems and the impact on spatial development patterns. Second, it examines the interrelationship between planning cultures and histories from a path-dependency perspective. Third, it discusses the variations in physical development patterns resulting from different planning cultures and histories. Chapters from different parts of the European continent present evidence at different scales to illustrate these aspects. In all cases, the specific combinations of political, ideological, social, economic and technological factors are important determinants of urban and regional planning trajectories as well as spatial development patterns. This book was previously published as a special issue of European Planning Studies.

For many young planners, the noble intentions with going to planning school seem starkly out of place in the neoliberal worlds they have come to inhabit. For some, the huge gap between the power they thought they would have and what they actually do is not only worrying, but also deeply discouraging. But for some others, practice means finding practical and creative solutions to overcome challenges and complexities. How do young planners in different settings respond to seemingly similar situations like these? What do they do - give up, adjust, or fight back? What role did their planning education play, and could it have helped in preparing and assisting them to respond to the world they are encountering? In this edited volume, stories of young planners from sixteen countries that engage these questions are presented. The sixteen cases range from settings with older, established planning systems (e.g., USA, the Netherlands, and the UK) to settings where the system is less set (e.g., Brazil), being remodeled (e.g., South Africa and Bosnia Herzegovina), and under stress (e.g., Turkey and Poland). Each chapter explores what might be done differently to prepare young planners for the complexities and challenges of their 'real worlds'. This book not only points out what is absent, but also offers planning educators an alternative vision. The editors and esteemed contributors provide reflections and suggestions as to how this new generation of young planners can be supported to survive in, embrace, and change the world they are encountering, and, in the spirit of planning, endeavor to 'change it for the better'.

This book argues that the concepts of 'neoliberalism' and 'neoliberalisation, ' while in common use across the whole range of social sciences, have thus far been generally overlooked in planning theory and the analysis of planning practice. Offering insights from papers presented during a conference session at a meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Boston in 2008 and a number of commissioned chapters, this book fills this significant hiatus in the study of planning. What the case studies from Africa, Asia, North-America and Europe included in this volume have in common is that they all reveal the uneasy cohabitation of 'planning' - some kind of state intervention for the betterment of our built and natural environment - and 'neoliberalism' - a belief in the superiority of market mechanisms to organize land use and the inferiority of its opposite, state intervention. Planning, if anything, may be seen as being in direct contrast to neoliberalism, as something that should be rolled back or even annihilated through neoliberal practice. To combine 'neoliberal' and 'planning' in one phrase then seems awkward at best, and an outright oxymoron at worst. To admit to the very existence or epistemological possibility of 'neoliberal planning' may appear to be a total surrender of state planning to market superiority, or in other words, the simple acceptance that the management of buildings, transport infrastructure, parks, conservation areas etc. "beyond" the profit principle has reached its limits in the 21st century. Planning in this case would be reduced to a mere facilitator of 'market forces' in the city, be it gentle or authoritarian. Yet in spite of these contradictions and outright impossibilities, planners operate within, contribute to, resist or temper an increasingly neoliberal mode of producing spaces and places, or the revival of profit-driven changes in land use. It is this contradiction between the serving of private profit-seeking interests while actually seeking the public betterment of cities that this volume has sought to describe, explore, analyze and make sense of through a set of case studies covering a wide range of planning issues in various countries. This book lays bare just how spatial planning functions in an age of market triumphalism, how planners respond to the overruling profit principle in land allocation and what is left of non-profit driven developments.

The premise of this volume is that the concepts of neoliberalism and neoliberalisation have largely been overlooked in planning theory as well as in the analysis of planning practice, despite the common deployment of these terms in the social sciences. Combining a number of specially commissioned chapters with insights from papers presented to a recent conference session of the Association of American Geographers in Boston, the book is dedicated to filling this significant lacuna in the study of planning.

What the case studies explored in these chapters from Africa, Asia, North America and Europe have in common is that they all reveal the uneasy coexistence of planning, defined as state intervention for the betterment of our built and natural environment, and neoliberalism, whose belief in the superiority of market mechanisms at organizing land use dictates a concomitant belief in the inferiority of its opposite, state intervention. Planning may, if anything, be seen as an obstacle to neoliberalism, an inconvenience destined to be rolled back or even annihilated through neoliberal practice. Combining neoliberal and planning in one phrase, then, seems awkward at best, and at worst an outright oxymoron. The very existence or epistemological possibility of neoliberal planning may appear to be a total surrender of state planning to market forces, or in other words, the simple acceptance that the management of buildings, transport infrastructure, parks, conservation areas etc. "beyond" the profit principle has reached its limits in the 21st century. In this case, planning practice is relegated to the position of a mere facilitator of market forces, be it moderate or authoritarian.

In spite of these contradictions and outright impossibilities, planners operate within, contribute to, resist or seek to mitigate an increasingly neoliberal mode of producing spaces and places, one that has resulted in the revival of profit-driven changes in land use. This book describes, analyzes and elucidates the incongruity between serving private, profit-driven interests and the planning system 's purported goal of improving the built environment shared by the public. It does so through case studies covering an array of planning issues in a range of national contexts. The authors lay bare precisely how spatial planning functions in a culture of market triumphalism, and how planners respond to the overriding profit principle in land allocation. Yet the book also provides exemplars of public-spirited, not-for-profit developments.

This book offers a cross-European analysis of urban and regional strategies of reconciling welfare and competitiveness. It develops an understanding of the strategy challenge to reconcile competitiveness with cohesion, and provides an analysis of cities and regions as actors in multi-level governance settings. The book offers a European comparative view on housing, labour markets, enterprises, ethnical issues, gender dimensions, urban development projects, transport, and sustainability.

For many young planners, the noble intentions with going to planning school seem starkly out of place in the neoliberal worlds they have come to inhabit. For some, the huge gap between the power they thought they would have and what they actually do is not only worrying, but also deeply discouraging. But for some others, practice means finding practical and creative solutions to overcome challenges and complexities. How do young planners in different settings respond to seemingly similar situations like these? What do they do - give up, adjust, or fight back? What role did their planning education play, and could it have helped in preparing and assisting them to respond to the world they are encountering? In this edited volume, stories of young planners from sixteen countries that engage these questions are presented. The sixteen cases range from settings with older, established planning systems (e.g., USA, the Netherlands, and the UK) to settings where the system is less set (e.g., Brazil), being remodeled (e.g., South Africa and Bosnia Herzegovina), and under stress (e.g., Turkey and Poland). Each chapter explores what might be done differently to prepare young planners for the complexities and challenges of their 'real worlds'. This book not only points out what is absent, but also offers planning educators an alternative vision. The editors and esteemed contributors provide reflections and suggestions as to how this new generation of young planners can be supported to survive in, embrace, and change the world they are encountering, and, in the spirit of planning, endeavor to 'change it for the better'.

This book offers a cross-European analysis of urban and regional strategies of reconciling welfare and competitiveness. It develops an understanding of the strategy challenge to reconcile competitiveness with cohesion, and provides an analysis of cities and regions as actors in multi-level governance settings. The book offers a European comparative view on housing, labour markets, enterprises, ethnical issues, gender dimensions, urban development projects, transport, and sustainability.