The complex diffusion processes affecting the flow of planning ideas and practices across the globe are illustrated in this book. It raises questions about why and how some ideas and practices attract international attention, and about the invention processes which go on when external influences are woven together with local efforts to meet local specifics and requirements.

Initiated to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the journal Planning Theory and Practice in 2009, this book reflects the themes of the journal.

Taking different intellectual perspectives, this...

Some thirty years ago the small Metropolitan County of Grotton found itself bathed in the bright glare of publicity as The Grotton Papers lifted the lid on the inner workings of the six planning departments of this hitherto little remarked corner of England.

The intervening years have seen Grotton's County Council aim at the admirable and mostly achievable target of becoming "average with moderate prospects of remaining average" in the Government rankings, and the struggles of the District Councils to come to terms with planning in the late twentieth - let alone...

After years of being regarded as a regulatory tool, spatial planning is now a key agent in delivering better places for the future. Dealing with the role of spatial planning in major change such as urban extensions or redevelopment, this book asks how it can deliver at the local level.

Setting out the new local governance within which spatial planning now operates and identifying the requirements of successful delivery, this book also provides an introduction to project management approaches to spatial planning. It details what the rules are for spatial planning, the role of...

This title presents four years of case study research and theoretical discussions on strategic spatial projects in Europe and North America. It takes the position that there is a need to develop a mode of planning that is more than just regulatory and administrative; that aims to innovate in spatial as well as social terms.

New Zealand's Resource Management Act (RMA) was hailed as a radical new approach to planning that would both achieve better environmental outcomes and benefit developers by working rapidly and more efficiently.

This book examines the lessons that can be learned by planning practitioners across the world. It focuses on the realities of implementing the RMA for the planning profession, the community and the political system within which planning must always operate.

Offering a practitioner's insight, the book looks at those strategies and techniques that have proved...

Since its foundation the European Union has gradually developed policies that are aimed at achieving increased economic and social cohesion. This book examines the most recent of these, the concept of territorial cohesion. Territorial cohesion is the pursuit of balanced development, competitiveness, sustainable development, and good governance. These concerns are most readily addressed by the formulation of spatial strategies under the umbrella of spatial planning, that brings together a multitude of public and private actors in a process that requires cohesion, coherence and co-operation....

This collection of Friedmann's most important and influential essays tells a coherent and compelling story about how the evolution of thinking about planning over several decades has helped to shape its practice. It is an ideal text for the study of planning theory and history.

Going beyond previous investigations into urban land use and travel, Petter Naess presents new research from Denmark on residential location and travel to show how and why urban spatial structures affect people's travel behaviour.

In a comprehensive case study of the Copenhagen metropolitan area, Naess combines traditional quantitative travel surveys with qualitative interviews in order to identify the more detailed mechanisms through which urban structure affects travel behaviour. The case study findings are compared with those from other Nordic countries and analyzed and evaluated...

Reviewing the limitations of various planning options, this book addresses the debate on how to preserve open space in the context of a growing metropolis.

The importance of open spaces for well-being in urban life is well-established. With case studies on internalization and valuation methods, this book critically examines the liberal discourse that urges the transfer of responsibility for open space from government to the market.

European and American expert authors confront political rhetoric with grounded analysis and conclude that the market needs to be combined with...