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Call for Papers Planning for Rural Change A session of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual Conference Manchester, 26-28th August 2009 Sponsored by the Rural Geography Research Group To offer a paper to the session, submit your details (name, institution, email address) and an abstract (max. 250 words) to D.Smith@Brighton or [log in to unmask] by Friday 23rd January 2009. Session organisers: Darren P. Smith (University of Brighton, UK) and Mark Scott (University College Dublin, Ireland) Rural geography has a rich legacy of engaging with spatial planning, such as Murdoch et al.'s (1998) discussion of 'planning by numbers'. Currently, it would appear that the interaction between rural geography and spatial planning has stagnated. This is surprising given the current 'plan-led' approach of central government to tackle social and spatial inequalities, such as the polarisation, marginalisation and displacement of low income groups from rural places, via mainstream local and regional spatial planning. Societal processes which such perspectives seek to regulate include the extended scale of counterurbanisation (Halfacree, 2008), rural gentrification (Phillips, 2005) and second homes (Gallent et al., 2005), and the out-migration/depopulation of established rural residents. This is typified by the Affordable Rural Housing Commission's (AHRC) report on subsidised housing in 2006, and the general response to AHRC's 'five essential items' (cf. Housing Green Paper 2007). Key here is the supportive planning policy framework (PPS 3) which has been subsequently established by the Department of Communities and Local Government, as well as investment targets for the delivery of affordable rural housing of settlements of less than 3,000 population; to sustain rural communities and address the 'rural housing crisis'. We therefore seek papers which explore current issues of rural change at the interface of rural geography and spatial planning, or other realms of planning policy. Themes of interest may focus on pressing rural issues such as population, housing, economic and employment change. Other important dimensions of interest may focus on important questions, such as: * What is the value of 'restraint-based' spatial planning practice on landscape protection, and concentrating development in key centres on the grounds of 'sustainability' (reducing car dependency, etc). * What are the implications of spatial planning discourses for nurturing sustainable rural communities? (e.g. rural services, balanced rural communities). * What are the key issues relating to competing rationalities of rural policy (e.g. development, conservation, etc) * What is the effect of the politics of rural change and planning: are middle class interests cloaked in 'conservation rationality'? * Who is the countryside for, and whose interests are represented by spatial planning (tourists, second home owners, food producers, middle class residents, 'locals only' planning policies)?