There is a clear consensus amongst both academic commentators and the professional community that... more There is a clear consensus amongst both academic commentators and the professional community that current arrangements for strategic planning in England are inadequate. The withdrawal of central government from leadership of the proposed ‘Oxford-Cambridge Arc’ in early 2022 marks a particular nadir, not least given the ambitions for the planning of the area set out only a year earlier. This article offers a conjunctural reading of the failure of the proposed Arc spatial framework, emphasising that not only was the process of planning the Arc itself problematical, but it also faced wider governmental and political headwinds which fuelled public opposition to the scheme, reduced central government commitment and redirected political priorities elsewhere. In this context the prospects for the future of strategic planning in England appear rather bleak. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .
... DOI: 10.1080/02690942.2010.525967 Dave Valler a * & Juliet Carpenter a pages 438-456.... more ... DOI: 10.1080/02690942.2010.525967 Dave Valler a * & Juliet Carpenter a pages 438-456. Available online: 24 Nov 2010. ...
ABSTRACT Business interests and agendas have been amongst the most influential drivers in the res... more ABSTRACT Business interests and agendas have been amongst the most influential drivers in the restructuring of the UK planning system over the past 30 years. Yet questions regarding the nature of business and business agendas and the power and influence of business interests have been somewhat under-developed in recent planning theory. In this paper we adopt a distinctive approach to theorizing business interest representation and business–state relations based on a strategic-relational approach. This seeks to establish an explicit focus on the dynamics of business–state relations, a standpoint of particular salience to planning and planning theory. It also offers distinctive theoretical perspectives regarding questions of business power and the evaluation of business influence, as well as informing contemporary debates around the engagement of business in planning processes. These insights hold significant potential in extending understanding of governance dynamics and the realities of planning politics and practice.
In this paper I examine the development of Cardiff City Council's local economic strategy. It... more In this paper I examine the development of Cardiff City Council's local economic strategy. It is argued that the definition of local policy, of what the policy process means in particular instances, derives from the complex of economic, social, and political conditions found within and beyond a given locality. In Cardiff, the interaction of broad processes of restructuring with specific local forms has historically diluted Cardiff City Council's function in local economic policy. In turn the recent experience of strategy making has been predicated upon a more wide-ranging and deeper involvement in associated service provision, and the construction of legitimacy around enhanced City Council activity. In particular ways this questions the interrelationship of strategy making and service provision promulgated in notions of strategic enabling.
Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning
Oxford-Oxfordshire, UK, and the Verband Region Stuttgart or the Metro Region in Germany are two o... more Oxford-Oxfordshire, UK, and the Verband Region Stuttgart or the Metro Region in Germany are two of Europe’s high-tech powerhouses, facing similar challenges concerning housing and infrastructure provision and accommodating regional as well as local economic growth. Based on desktop studies and semi-structured expert interviews, this paper examines the respective institutional, political and cultural contexts for strategic planning in the two distinct settings, aiming to identify the evolving balance of socio-spatial dimensions influencing each case. While the interplay of territory, place, scale and network is different across the two cases, both face ongoing dilemmas. In the Stuttgart region, an established and smoothly running economic and spatial growth-machine has stuttered as growth has reached capacity and localities have asserted their constitutional controls on urban expansion. In Oxford (and the wider county of Oxfordshire), there has been a contrasting dislocation between ...
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2010
The emergence over the last 30–40 years of what is variously termed edge city, edgeless, and post... more The emergence over the last 30–40 years of what is variously termed edge city, edgeless, and postsuburban development in North America and elsewhere raises a set of challenges for urban theory and existing ways of understanding the politics of urban growth and management. These challenges and their global import have been outlined in their broadest terms by members of a ‘Los Angeles School’. In this paper we try to develop the detail of some of these challenges in ways that might allow for comparative analysis. We begin by considering three analytical dimensions along which distinctively postsuburban settlements might be identified. These dimensions are not without their limitations but we regard them as a heuristic device around which to centre ongoing comparative research. We then go on to highlight three political contradictions attending postsuburban growth which appear to flow from some of these defining dimensions. To the extent that such postsuburban growth and politics are d...
Science and technology spaces around the world are, simultaneously, major physical, technological... more Science and technology spaces around the world are, simultaneously, major physical, technological and symbolic forms, key elements of economic strategy, and sites of international labour movements and knowledge transfer. They are thus the product of multiple imaginations, with multiple, potentially divergent, objectives. In this paper, we compare three international science spaces as ‘ethnoscapes’, emphasising the distinctive perceptions, cultures and identities amongst international science and technology migrants and visitors at these sites. This, we contend, sharpens a sense of the ‘international-ness’ of science spaces in various dimensions, given the particular experiences of scientific migrants and visitors moving into different nations, locations and facilities, their roles in constructing international communities, and their navigation of alternative spaces. It also offers insight into the production of contextual (rather than spatial or physical) localities, as internationa...
There is a clear consensus amongst both academic commentators and the professional community that... more There is a clear consensus amongst both academic commentators and the professional community that current arrangements for strategic planning in England are inadequate. The withdrawal of central government from leadership of the proposed ‘Oxford-Cambridge Arc’ in early 2022 marks a particular nadir, not least given the ambitions for the planning of the area set out only a year earlier. This article offers a conjunctural reading of the failure of the proposed Arc spatial framework, emphasising that not only was the process of planning the Arc itself problematical, but it also faced wider governmental and political headwinds which fuelled public opposition to the scheme, reduced central government commitment and redirected political priorities elsewhere. In this context the prospects for the future of strategic planning in England appear rather bleak. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .
... DOI: 10.1080/02690942.2010.525967 Dave Valler a * & Juliet Carpenter a pages 438-456.... more ... DOI: 10.1080/02690942.2010.525967 Dave Valler a * & Juliet Carpenter a pages 438-456. Available online: 24 Nov 2010. ...
ABSTRACT Business interests and agendas have been amongst the most influential drivers in the res... more ABSTRACT Business interests and agendas have been amongst the most influential drivers in the restructuring of the UK planning system over the past 30 years. Yet questions regarding the nature of business and business agendas and the power and influence of business interests have been somewhat under-developed in recent planning theory. In this paper we adopt a distinctive approach to theorizing business interest representation and business–state relations based on a strategic-relational approach. This seeks to establish an explicit focus on the dynamics of business–state relations, a standpoint of particular salience to planning and planning theory. It also offers distinctive theoretical perspectives regarding questions of business power and the evaluation of business influence, as well as informing contemporary debates around the engagement of business in planning processes. These insights hold significant potential in extending understanding of governance dynamics and the realities of planning politics and practice.
In this paper I examine the development of Cardiff City Council's local economic strategy. It... more In this paper I examine the development of Cardiff City Council's local economic strategy. It is argued that the definition of local policy, of what the policy process means in particular instances, derives from the complex of economic, social, and political conditions found within and beyond a given locality. In Cardiff, the interaction of broad processes of restructuring with specific local forms has historically diluted Cardiff City Council's function in local economic policy. In turn the recent experience of strategy making has been predicated upon a more wide-ranging and deeper involvement in associated service provision, and the construction of legitimacy around enhanced City Council activity. In particular ways this questions the interrelationship of strategy making and service provision promulgated in notions of strategic enabling.
Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning
Oxford-Oxfordshire, UK, and the Verband Region Stuttgart or the Metro Region in Germany are two o... more Oxford-Oxfordshire, UK, and the Verband Region Stuttgart or the Metro Region in Germany are two of Europe’s high-tech powerhouses, facing similar challenges concerning housing and infrastructure provision and accommodating regional as well as local economic growth. Based on desktop studies and semi-structured expert interviews, this paper examines the respective institutional, political and cultural contexts for strategic planning in the two distinct settings, aiming to identify the evolving balance of socio-spatial dimensions influencing each case. While the interplay of territory, place, scale and network is different across the two cases, both face ongoing dilemmas. In the Stuttgart region, an established and smoothly running economic and spatial growth-machine has stuttered as growth has reached capacity and localities have asserted their constitutional controls on urban expansion. In Oxford (and the wider county of Oxfordshire), there has been a contrasting dislocation between ...
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2010
The emergence over the last 30–40 years of what is variously termed edge city, edgeless, and post... more The emergence over the last 30–40 years of what is variously termed edge city, edgeless, and postsuburban development in North America and elsewhere raises a set of challenges for urban theory and existing ways of understanding the politics of urban growth and management. These challenges and their global import have been outlined in their broadest terms by members of a ‘Los Angeles School’. In this paper we try to develop the detail of some of these challenges in ways that might allow for comparative analysis. We begin by considering three analytical dimensions along which distinctively postsuburban settlements might be identified. These dimensions are not without their limitations but we regard them as a heuristic device around which to centre ongoing comparative research. We then go on to highlight three political contradictions attending postsuburban growth which appear to flow from some of these defining dimensions. To the extent that such postsuburban growth and politics are d...
Science and technology spaces around the world are, simultaneously, major physical, technological... more Science and technology spaces around the world are, simultaneously, major physical, technological and symbolic forms, key elements of economic strategy, and sites of international labour movements and knowledge transfer. They are thus the product of multiple imaginations, with multiple, potentially divergent, objectives. In this paper, we compare three international science spaces as ‘ethnoscapes’, emphasising the distinctive perceptions, cultures and identities amongst international science and technology migrants and visitors at these sites. This, we contend, sharpens a sense of the ‘international-ness’ of science spaces in various dimensions, given the particular experiences of scientific migrants and visitors moving into different nations, locations and facilities, their roles in constructing international communities, and their navigation of alternative spaces. It also offers insight into the production of contextual (rather than spatial or physical) localities, as internationa...
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Papers by David Valler