1st Edition

Reconsidering Localism

Edited By Simin Davoudi, Ali Madanipour Copyright 2015
    302 Pages
    by Routledge

    302 Pages
    by Routledge

    "Localism" has been deployed in recent debates over planning law as an anodyne, grassroots way to shape communities into sustainable, human-scale neighborhoods. But "local" is a moving category, with contradictory, nuanced dimensions. Reconsidering Localism brings together new scholarship from leading academics in Europe and North America to develop a theoretically-grounded critique and definition of the new localism, and how it has come to shape urban governance and urban planning.

    Moving beyond the UK, this book examines localism and similar shifts in planning policy throughout Europe, and features essays on localism and place-making, sustainability, social cohesion, and citizen participation in community institutions. It explores how debates over localism and citizen control play out at the neighborhood, institutional and city level, and has come to effect the urban landscape throughout Europe. Reconsidering Localism is a current, vital addition to planning scholarship.

    Chapter 1: Introduction  Part One: The Local in Localism  Chapter 2: Localism: Institutions, territories, representations  Chapter 3: Paradoxes of local planning in contested societies  Chapter 4: Localism agendas and post-political trends: Neighbourhood policy trajectories in Denver  Chapter 5: Localism and the ‘post-social’ governmentality  Part Two: Localism and Democracy  Chapter 6: Civic capacity, place governance and progressive localism  Chapter 7: The Promise of democracy? Civic enterprise, localism and the transformation of democratic capitalism  Chapter 8: The community capacity to plan: The disproportionate requirements of the new English neighbourhood planning initiative  Chapter 9: Is small really beautiful: The legitimacy of neighbourhood planning?  Part Three: Localism and Sustainability   Chapter 10: Avoiding collapse: An agenda for degrowth and relocalisation  Chapter 11: ‘Localism’ and the environment: Effective re-scaling for sustainability transition?  Chapter 12: Localism, scale and place in claims for sustainable urbanism: Moving beyond the idealist and materialist  Chapter 13: Localism and rural development  Chapter 14: Epilogue: Promises and pitfalls of localism

    Biography

    Simin Davoudi is Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning and Associate Director of the Institute for Sustainability at Newcastle University, UK. She is past President of the Association of the European Schools of Planning, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, expert advisor for the UK Government and EU Commission, and member of national and international research assessment panels. Her research focuses on the interface of society and ecology. Ali Madanipour is Professor of Urban Design and Director of Global Urban Research Unit (GURU) at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, UK. His latest books include Public Space and the Challenges of Urban Transformation in Europe, and Urban Design, Space and Society.