Regional planning is dead: long live planning regional futures

ABSTRACT

This paper starts from the premise that regional planning as it is known is now defunct and something that we need to get used to. Identifying those disruptive elements that have undermined traditional forms of institutionalized regional planning, it is argued that contemporary planning debates are too obsessed with the institutional planning frame and have become distracted from the changing content of the real-world picture. The aim in this paper is to reassert the purpose and values of planning by rediscovering the content, conceptualize multiple and fluid forms of planning frames, and reposition the planner as an orchestrator and enabler of planning regional futures.

KEYWORDS:

• regional planning
• regional futures
• wicked problems
• agile planning

JEL:

• O21
• R58

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The paper benefitted from feedback received at various international conferences, research seminars, as well as very constructive feedback from the external reviewers and editors of the journal.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Of note is how Paasi, among others, is commonly referring to slow long-term processes of region-building, something which increasingly runs counter to the dynamic short-term churn of present-day regional planning imaginaries.

2. At the time of writing, Alibaba's City Brain is operating in 23 cities (22 in China plus Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia), serving customers in 48 different specific application scenarios across 11 major areas of city life, including transportation, urban government, cultural tourism and health.

3. This list results from ongoing discussion between the authors, drawing in particular on: the findings of major research projects examining digital means of planning urban and regional futures (Tewdwr-Jones), international comparative planning (Galland) and private actors in planning (Harrison); roles as Director of a Future Cities Urban Living Partnership 2015–19 working across public, private and voluntary sectors to deliver projects in Newcastle–Gateshead (Tewdwr-Jones) and Chair of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) Excellence in Education Board (Galland); and collective participation in a three-year international working group examining the planning and governance of metropolitan regions (2016–19, all authors).