Call for Papers:  RGS-IBG international conference London 26-29 August 2014

Session title: Neighbourhood Planning in England: the contested politics of localism and co-production

Sponsored by the Planning & Environment Research Group

Session convenors:

Dr Sue Brownill, Oxford Brookes University. Email:  [log in to unmask]

Dr Quintin Bradley, Leeds Metropolitan University. Email: [log in to unmask]

This session will explore the contested politics of Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDPs), one of a raft of measures introduced under the Localism Act (2011) in England. With over 800 Neighbourhood Development Plans underway, and several already approved by popular referenda, the initiative is promoted as devolving power to communities and enabling popular engagement in local decisions, thereby bridging the divide between participatory and representative democracy, harmonising  the competing priorities of the strategic and very local, and improving relationships between local authorities and local people.

As such the emerging experience of NDPs in England and similar initiatives in other countries speak to some key debates in geography and planning which this session seeks to address. These include:

• The contradictory meanings, uses and propositions of localism; as Cochrane and Clarke, 2013 and Featherstone et al 2012 argue there are a variety of rationales, meanings and claims behind localism in general and the form of localism which is emerging within England in particular. Work on NDPs has already revealed the value of exploring empirically how these play out in practice and the session will add to those studies.
• The uneven geographies of localism; much of the controversy surrounding neighbourhood planning has focused on the uneven distribution of the social and economic capital, skills and capacities needed to share in the apparent freedoms of localism . Lowndes and Pratchett 2012 argue that neighbourhoods will either sink or swim in the tides of localism, however there is also value in exploring the potential for how a variety of ‘localisms’ are emerging ( or are being assembled) and how NDPs, particularly those in urban neighbourhoods may impact on inequalities of power and resources.
• Governance and topographies of power; localism represents the latest in a a long line of initiatives aimed at changing the relationship between the state and its citizens through the political construction of place and neighbourhood.  Debates over the extent to which this represents the ‘soft places of neoliberalism’ (Houghton and Allemendinger, 2013) or the emergence of a non-scalar topography of power (Allan and Cochrane 2010) can be addressed through the study of neighbourhood planning.

• The potential for a progressive localism; the session will explore whether or not within the technologies and infrastructure of localism as they are emerging through NDPs and related community rights, more progressive forms are emerging. This will draw on experiences from other countries within the UK, and wider and will  include exploring the role of neighbourhood planning in encouraging co-production and broadening knowledge of, or interest in planning decisions

Papers for this session are invited on aspects of neighbourhood planning that address these broader debates. The convenors welcome either conceptual or empirically focused papers on the impact of neighbourhood planning on planning, the environment and the politics of governance and are keen to extend enquiry beyond England/UK.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words, plus title and author details to Quintin Bradley ([log in to unmask]) and Sue Brownill ([log in to unmask]) by 14 February 2014