Temporalities for, of, and in Planning: Exploring Post-Growth, Participation, and Devolution Across European Planning Reforms

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the acceleration of climate change, many governments are turning to their planning systems to explore how national planning reform can help them address their current crisis. Time across planning reforms appears as a central dimension, building on governments...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lucía Cerrada Morato, Agnieszka Zimnicka, Judi Wilson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cogitatio 2025-04-01
Series:Urban Planning
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/9121
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850176348849438720
author Lucía Cerrada Morato
Agnieszka Zimnicka
Judi Wilson
author_facet Lucía Cerrada Morato
Agnieszka Zimnicka
Judi Wilson
author_sort Lucía Cerrada Morato
collection DOAJ
description In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the acceleration of climate change, many governments are turning to their planning systems to explore how national planning reform can help them address their current crisis. Time across planning reforms appears as a central dimension, building on governments’ long-term ambitions to speed planning. While academic normative debates argue in favour of faster and/or slower changes to planning as inherently good or bad, this article draws on a comparative analysis of national planning reforms across three European countries to critically examine how time is being mobilised and with what objective. Through an analytical framework that seeks a more holistic understanding of the planning process, we argue that temporalities in planning are relational. Across the three cases, we can see how the generation of consensus depoliticises the use of time, and it is generally used to advance regressive agendas. We argue that despite ambitions to make planning more responsive and participatory at the local level, planning reforms (a) reduce the influence of public participation while strengthening private property rights; (b) are used to territorialise sectoral, top–down, and long-term agendas with no consideration of the timely and situated concerns and visions of residents and communities; and (c) are underpinned by a pro-growth and rapid urbanisation agenda that ignores sustainability debates.
format Article
id doaj-art-cf063a63bba240a19f397c7b9af5d811
institution OA Journals
issn 2183-7635
language English
publishDate 2025-04-01
publisher Cogitatio
record_format Article
series Urban Planning
spelling doaj-art-cf063a63bba240a19f397c7b9af5d8112025-08-20T02:19:16ZengCogitatioUrban Planning2183-76352025-04-0110010.17645/up.91214141Temporalities for, of, and in Planning: Exploring Post-Growth, Participation, and Devolution Across European Planning ReformsLucía Cerrada Morato0Agnieszka Zimnicka1Judi Wilson2Geography Department, King's College London, UK / Institut Metròpoli, SpainDepartment of Urban Design and Regional Planning, Gdansk University of Technology, PolandIndependent Researcher, UKIn the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the acceleration of climate change, many governments are turning to their planning systems to explore how national planning reform can help them address their current crisis. Time across planning reforms appears as a central dimension, building on governments’ long-term ambitions to speed planning. While academic normative debates argue in favour of faster and/or slower changes to planning as inherently good or bad, this article draws on a comparative analysis of national planning reforms across three European countries to critically examine how time is being mobilised and with what objective. Through an analytical framework that seeks a more holistic understanding of the planning process, we argue that temporalities in planning are relational. Across the three cases, we can see how the generation of consensus depoliticises the use of time, and it is generally used to advance regressive agendas. We argue that despite ambitions to make planning more responsive and participatory at the local level, planning reforms (a) reduce the influence of public participation while strengthening private property rights; (b) are used to territorialise sectoral, top–down, and long-term agendas with no consideration of the timely and situated concerns and visions of residents and communities; and (c) are underpinned by a pro-growth and rapid urbanisation agenda that ignores sustainability debates.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/9121planning reformsplanning systemsplanning temporalitiespost-growthpublic participation
spellingShingle Lucía Cerrada Morato
Agnieszka Zimnicka
Judi Wilson
Temporalities for, of, and in Planning: Exploring Post-Growth, Participation, and Devolution Across European Planning Reforms
Urban Planning
planning reforms
planning systems
planning temporalities
post-growth
public participation
title Temporalities for, of, and in Planning: Exploring Post-Growth, Participation, and Devolution Across European Planning Reforms
title_full Temporalities for, of, and in Planning: Exploring Post-Growth, Participation, and Devolution Across European Planning Reforms
title_fullStr Temporalities for, of, and in Planning: Exploring Post-Growth, Participation, and Devolution Across European Planning Reforms
title_full_unstemmed Temporalities for, of, and in Planning: Exploring Post-Growth, Participation, and Devolution Across European Planning Reforms
title_short Temporalities for, of, and in Planning: Exploring Post-Growth, Participation, and Devolution Across European Planning Reforms
title_sort temporalities for of and in planning exploring post growth participation and devolution across european planning reforms
topic planning reforms
planning systems
planning temporalities
post-growth
public participation
url https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/9121
work_keys_str_mv AT luciacerradamorato temporalitiesforofandinplanningexploringpostgrowthparticipationanddevolutionacrosseuropeanplanningreforms
AT agnieszkazimnicka temporalitiesforofandinplanningexploringpostgrowthparticipationanddevolutionacrosseuropeanplanningreforms
AT judiwilson temporalitiesforofandinplanningexploringpostgrowthparticipationanddevolutionacrosseuropeanplanningreforms