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The present time is one of considerable political and ideological turmoil. This affects urban planning, like all areas of public policy. This book sets out to analyse the political and ideological dimensions of planning, focusing on the UK and particularly on England. These have been underplayed or obscured in the past, partly because professional planners have wished to present themselves as apolitical and non-ideological actors. The book proposes that good planning practice will be helped by a more explicit engagement with how planning is affected by political activity and by ideological thinking. The book therefore takes a series of cuts into the subject, starting with a survey of recent planning literature and proceeding to a historical overview of the relationship of planning to ideological currents, including a brief study of one recent UK government. There is then a survey of the main ideological composites active in Britain. There follows a chapter on the relationships between technical work, law and planning, to establish to what degree the political forces allow autonomy for technical skill and the force of legal thinking. Three chapters deal with dimensions of politics and ideology as they operate within government, pressure politics and the media, as well as the place of public deliberation in planning. Two chapters examine different facets and fields of planning, to identify variation across sub-fields of planning work. The final chapter explores some paths to improving the relationship between politics and planning, in current circumstances.

In these uncertain times of continuing climate change impact and the recent global pandemic, it is now more important than ever that we look long-term and provide the right tools for people to decide what sort of future they want for their cities across the world. ‘Urban futures’ thinking is based on the notion that we need a practical and formal framework to imagine what our cities could and should be like to live, work and play in, in the long term; how they will operate; what infrastructure is needed; and how governance systems will be required to help shape them and ensure their resilience. The book explores the history and evolution of city visions, placing them in the wider context of art, science, culture and urban theory. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including the authors’ own research of urban change, the book examines the rationale and development of city visions, and why they are now so important. To do this, the book places city visioning in the context of urban and regional planning and the emergence of ‘city foresight’, which is a set of futures-based techniques and methods to identify how cities might evolve into the future. The book highlights and critically reviews examples of city visions from around the world, contrasting their development, and outlining the key benefits and challenges in developing such visions. This is set within the wider context of the policy and practice implications of city foresight and city visions.