What’s left of British planning?

Cliff Hague

Sheffield 17 July 2007

Where are we?

Institutional form. Institutional cultures and mental

models – reproduce a way of looking at the world, and acting “appropriately”.

Discourse coalitions formed around storylines (pithy statements that make connections and create new insights).

Institutional form – 1950s

Confined by national boundaries and legislation;

The work is done in ministries and the town hall, by professionals acting in “the public interest” whose technical expertise and standards allows them to know best what a largely homogeneous society needs.

A model of government not governance.

Mental models

Local / national focus. Driven by national guidance. Predominantly a regulatory regime in a

legal framework. Presumption of consensus. “Soft environmentalism”. Social justice?

Discourse coalition

Planning as a means of controlling growth and development, especially house building.

How did we get here?

Legacy of Thatcherism / public choice theory.

Narrow focus, legally defined. Protection of property values. Central control to ensure a level playing field

for business. Targets provide information for taxpayers to

judge performance and choose. Resistant to New Labour aspirations for

better integration / spatial planning.

Of course, it’s nothing to do with us, but…

185,000 more people in cities today than yesterday, and another 185,000 tomorrow.

93% of the growth in urban population 2000-2015 will be in less developed countries.

010002000300040005000

2000 2015 2030

Urban population (M)

Most developedLeast developedWorld

Urbanisation of poverty

1 billion slum dwellers in 2007 – 1 person in 6.

On present trends 1 person in 3 by 2033.

Hour-glass labour markets – widening rich / poor divide within rich cities too.

Successful physical regeneration displaces the poor.

Global migrations – 200M environmental refugees by 2050.

Challenges to social stability.

Planning as an anti-poor practice: “Move out the trash to make the city clean and green”.

The brown agenda and the green agenda

Urban poverty is killing people today – e.g. under 5 mortality in Nairobi is 62 per 1000 live births, but in Nairobi’s slums it is 151, and in rural Kenya 13.

The “brown agenda” is fundamental to any international deal on climate change, the “green agenda”.

An agenda for progressive planning practice and scholarship

The focus of planning has been national and local. ACT GLOBAL AS WELL AS LOCAL.

Networks are weak, and divided by discipline, language and region. LINK THEM TO BUILD GLOBAL DISCOURSE COALITIONS.

The professional planning capacity is concentrated in the global North and works on land use regulation. The most urgent needs are for strategic metropolitan planning in the South. ADVOCATE, SUPPORT, BUILD CAPACITY – BUT ALSO LEARN FROM THE SOUTH.

Building a new global coalition

No sustainable development without sustainable urbanisation – and no sustainable urbanisation without effective planning.

Planning as preventative urban medicine – contrast with the failures of 30 years of relying on urban curative medicine.

Planning as a pro-poor practice and form of transparent governance, based on the fundamental notion that everyone has a right to the city.

Urbanisation - 70M people a year, conversion of 2% per year

of global land surface, but economic added value is 12% of GDP.

Vancouver Declaration

We stand for Planning as an inclusive process. Planning is strategic and local, integrative, participatory, creative, embracing cultural diversity and rooted in concerns for equity.

We will mobilise, share and develop the knowledge and skills of planners to build the capacity for creating safe, healthy and sustainable settlements.

Re-inventing Planning

Sustainability Integrating planning with

budgets Transparent, accountable

planning Planning with partners Subsidiarity Market responsiveness Access to land Appropriate tools Pro-poor and inclusive Cultural diversity

Education and skills

Lead practice, don’t follow it.

Internationalise courses & networks.

Teach skills – traditional and new.

Ethics and pro-poor planning.

The New Planning Rap

Hey, man, the world’s moved on,The age of old-style planning is gone.We’ll free our profession from its trap When all of us are doing the New Planning Rap.

I’m glad you askedWhy planning’s stuck in the past.National, physical,Traditional professional,Bureaucrat, Technocrat,Top-down n’ all that…

The New Planning Rap

So where does planning fit for me?It’s international political economy.Advocates for equity,Planning for diversity,Inclusive, participatory,It’s AGENTS FOR CHANGE planners need to be.

Hey, man, the world’s moved on,The age of old-style planning is gone.So now we can give ourselves a clap ‘Coz we’re all doing the New Planning Rap.