Future for Planners
Commercialisation, Professionalism and the Public Interest in the UK

By (author) Geoff Vigar,Abigail Schoneboom,Malcolm Tait,Ben Clifford,Jason Slade,Andy Inch,Susannah Gunn

ISBN13: 9781447366034

Imprint: Policy Press

Publisher: Bristol University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Published: 01/02/2026

Availability: Not yet available

Description
Spatial planning is at a crossroads, with government reform undermining the traditional vision of state-employed planners making decisions about urban development in a unified public interest. Nearly half of UK planners are now employed in the private sector, with complex inter-relations between the sectors including supplying outsourced services to local authorities struggling with centrally-imposed budget cuts. Drawing on new empirical data from a major research project, ‘Working in the Public Interest’, this book reveals what it’s like to be a UK planner in the early 21st century, and how the profession can fulfil its potential for the benefit of society and the environment.
Part 1: Contexts 1. Introduction: The Changing Organisational Contexts for Planning and Why It Matters 2. Public and Private in Postwar British Planning 3. The Public Interest and Planning’s Contested Purposes 4. Organisational Settings and Everyday Practices Part 2: Conditions 5. Privatisation and the Contemporary Landscape of Planning Provision in the UK 6. Commodification and Casualisation: Consultancies and Agency Staff in UK Planning 7. Commercialisation and Planning 8. Twenty-First-Century Planning Work and Workplaces Part 3: Consequences 9. Professionalism and Planning 10. Realising the Public Interest in Planning? 11. Conclusions: Reorganising the Future of Public Interest Planning?
  • Regional & area planning
  • Social issues & processes
  • General (US: Trade)
  • Professional & Vocational
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List Price: £27.99