The Ashgate Research Companion to Planning Theory
Conceptual Challenges for Spatial Planning

Presents a multidimensional collection of critical narratives of conceptual challenges for spatial planning. This title explores different ways of conceptualizing spatial planning and the challenges it faces. It addresses critical questions and debates over the issues for spatial planning and its future.

A key question is not so much what planning theory is, but what might planning theory do in times of uncertainty and complexity. An underlying rationale is that planning theory and practice are intrinsically connected. The Companion is presented in three linked parts: issues which arise from an interactive understanding of the relations between planning ideas and the political-institutional contexts in which such ideas are put to work; key concepts in current theorizing from mainly poststructuralist perspectives and what discussion on complexity may offer planning theory and practice.

Overall introduction, Jean Hillier
Part 1 Conceptual Challenges from Perspectives on Spatial Planning: Introduction, Patsy Healey
Governance, space and politics: exploring the governmentality of planning, Enrico Gualini
Informality and the politics of planning, Ananya Roy
Coexistence
planning and the challenge of indigenous rights, Richard Howitt and Gaim James Lunkapis
Problematising planning: critical and effective genealogies, Margo Huxley
Is this how it is, or is this how it is here? Making sense of politics in planning, Wytske Versteeg and Maarten Hajer
Role conflict: planners torn between dialogical ideals and neo-liberal realities, Tore Sager
Enhancing creativity and action orientation in planning, Louis Albrechts.
Part 2 Conceptual Challenges for Spatial Planning Theory: Introduction, Jean Hillier
Cities and nations, Manuel DeLanda
Modulation of singularities - a complexity approach to planning competitions, Joris van Wezemael
Community enterprises: imagining and enacting alternatives to capitalism, J.K. Gibson-Graham and Jenny Cameron
Trouble with nature: 'ecology as the new opium for the masses' Erik Swyngedouw
Urbanity, (neo)vitalism and becoming, John Ploger
Necessary dreaming: uses of utopia in urban planning, David Pinder.
Part 3 Conceptual Challenges for Spatial Planning in Complexity: Introduction, Jean Hillier
Governance and planning: a pragmatic approach, Niraj Verma
Coping with the irreducible uncertainties of planning: an evolutionary approach, Luca Bertolini
Cybernetic spatial planning: steering, managing or just letting go?, Nikos Karadimitriou
Strategic navigation in an ocean of theoretical and practice complexity, Jean Hillier
Index.