What must planners do differently?
Proud of planning, proud of planners?
Whilst the next Government reform initiative or the latest development trends hog the headlines, there is generally far less discussion about the underlying purposes that guide planning, what planning does (and does not) actually achieve and what it means to work in the public interest. By opening up a space to discuss these questions in this booklet we aim to provoke further debate about whether things need to be the way they are or whether we could do things differently, and better?
Following years of political scepticism towards planners, these questions can be hard to address. Many of the planners we met suggested that a ‘thick skin’ was required to deal with constant criticism and avoid being ground down within a system where they feel undervalued and unappreciated. Faced with these challenges, many opt to get their heads down and get on with it, taking their job satisfaction from the small, sometimes intangible ways their professional advice still makes a difference whilst navigating political, economic and organisational changes that can have significant effects on their working lives.
The Royal Town Planning Institute, for its part, often seems to be on the defensive, torn between boosting morale by finding reasons to be #proudofplanning and the need to call out the dismal development that too often results from a dysfunctional and under-resourced system. The rapid growth in private-sector employment over the last 30 years has undoubtedly complicated this position. With many planners’ jobs now invested in property development, it is harder than ever for the profession to be directly critical of development outcomes. These compromises need to be negotiated, however, if planners are to regain moral authority in debates over how things need to change.
This booklet therefore aims to generate discussion about both what planners do and what they could do differently, individually and collectively. Drawing on the multitude of perspectives and insights we have gathered through the WITPI project, we offer a range of provocations around the following six themes, each written by different members of the project team.
The themes are deliberately diverse. Individually and collectively, however, they all focus attention on important facets of what it means to work in the public interest:
Professionalism: what does it mean to be a professional in planning today?
Work-life balance: how is planning being affected by work intensification and why does it matter?
Commercialisation: how are pressures to generate fee income transforming public sector planning?
Careers in planning: how can young planners navigate the job market to find the right organisational fit?
Planning ethics: what does it mean to act ethically in planning today?
Planners’ agency: how do planners find ways of making a difference in practice?
The public interest: what does all of this mean for the ways planners’ work in the public interest?