Practical and theoretical ideas up for discussion
John Sturzaker has been out and about presenting at two academic conferences in the few weeks. Last week he spoke at the Royal Geographical Society’s annual conference in Edinburgh, presenting a paper co-authored with Alex Lord entitled 'Neighbourhood Planning: Who’s Planning and Whose Plans?'. This paper captured some findings from research Drs Sturzaker and Lord are carrying out at the moment, looking at how a number of communities in the North West are getting on with the new powers available to them under the Government’s 2011 Localism Act.
Back in June John took a different paper to the Planning Theory conference in Bristol. This paper set out some new ideas on the role of fear in planners’ decision-making, based in part on his experience as a planning practitioner, under the title of 'Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile'.
Both presentations are in the process of being worked up into full papers for publication.