Alan Mace

• London School of Economics and Political Science

Formal regional planning structures were abolished in England in 2011. One response has been to call for their restitution, another has been to argue instead for negotiated strategic regional planning. The latter envisages the formation of partnerships in lieu of formal structures, with two key benefits being it is less vulnerable to government tin...

Urban designers have long sought to plan more secure public spaces by encouraging a sense of territory through the surveillant and the surveyed. Nevertheless, the racial dimension of this territorialisation is insufficiently recognised. Our research tool, which we have trialled in Milan, identifies the influence of design in creating a sense of sec...

The urgent need for housing in London will be met almost exclusively through building on brownfield sites. While Inner and suburban Outer London are both home to a range of brownfield sites, the politics of delivering new housing varies between the two. First, Outer London is built at significantly lower density and therefore densification has a mo...

This article analyses the interrelation of ethnicity, class and tenure in the gentrification trajectories that have taken place in England in the most recent intercensal period (2001–2011). It argues that the return of the Private Rented Sector has made possible the extension of social change to areas not favored by White British (majority ethnic)...

In this article we address scalar issues of power in planning. In the context of the reengineering of governance, including the promotion of localism in England, we focus on local actors’ beliefs in the extent of their power (de facto and de jure) over development decisions pertaining to their jurisdiction, on how misreadings arise and the conseque...

This article addresses a specific intersection of class, place and whiteness by focusing on distinctions between middle-class owner-occupiers in suburban London. Where whiteness is constructed through association with an imaginary of the unchanging nature of rural England and, in particular, the village, some suburban places provide a more ready vi...

In the 1990s, the suburbs of Madrid saw the substantial development of new housing. New plans provided for 200,000 new homes over 7200 Ha of land. These developments eschewed earlier modernist forms of suburbanization in favour of the perimeter block that superficially echoed the ‘traditional’ built form of the city. But the new perimeter blocks an...

An important claim for the categorisation and study of shrinking cities is that the experience of governance across these cities may offer an alternative to hegemonic discourses of growth. However, there are methodological problems associated with categorizing then researching shrinking cities. Two key problems are: first, the category hides a mult...

An important claim for the categorisation and study of shrinking cities is that the experience of governance across shrinking cities may offer an alternative to hegemonic discourses of growth. However, there are methodological problems associated with categorizing then researching shrinking cities. Two key problems are: first, the category of shrin...

This article looks at the distribution of social upscaling across London linked to changes in tenure between 2001 and 2011. Against a background of discussions of suburban decline, it shows that there are a number of Outer London areas which have seen upscaling trajectories linked to the private rented sector. The analysis reveals that this particu...

The focus of this article is the development of neighbourhood planning in England, in particular its guiding principle of local people as rational actors. The article looks at neighbourhood planning in its own terms; that is, it looks at the rationality of engagement in a new system that seeks to tip the balance of rationality in favour of communit...

The Metropolitan Green Belt (MGB) was established in the 1930s and has expanded enormously since. Accompanying polices, including New Towns, have since been abandoned, leaving the MGB as an ‘orphaned’ policy which constrains land supply. Prioritising the reuse of Brownfield land and densification are now the counter to land constraint. However, it...

This report is one of a set intended to inform the approach of a forthcoming full review of the Mayoral London Plan, in relation to its strategic approach to planning of residential densities across the city. Specifically it was expected to help provide clarity for wide ranging debate about two key issues of higher density development, relating to...

This purpose of this article is to look at the potential benefit to planning practice of engaging with spatial capital – a concept derived from the social theory of Bourdieu. Doubt is expressed about the theoretical basis for spatial capital; nevertheless, it is argued that it may have merit as a trope for planning practitioners. Spatial capital ha...

Despite a longstanding and varied body of literature on suburban difference, a simplified narrative of the suburbs persists that is represented by a city–suburb binary. This is damaging as it undermines our understanding of the social dynamics of the places in which, in the United Kingdom, the majority of the population live. This article looks at...

Concern for space in new homes in England grew during the mid-2000s, largely as a result of unfavourable floor space comparisons with housing being built elsewhere in Europe. English homes were getting smaller, but space standards in other countries appeared to be preventing the cramming of too many rooms onto shrinking floor plates. Therefore, gov...

Achieving higher density development has become, as part of sustainable development, a core principle of the contemporary planning professional. The appeal of density is its simplicity, it is an independent measurable element to which various separate claims can be and are attached; it achieves greater public transport use, makes it possible to liv...

In England spatial planning has been critiqued as being part of a postpolitical project which seeks to suppress the contested nature of policy and determining appli­cations. A key aspect of this critique is that consensus overrides territoriality as the interface between local, bounded politics is underplayed in favour of the relational nature of p...

Exploring fiction, film and art from across the USA, South America, Asia, Europe and Australia, New Suburban Stories brings together new research from leading international scholars to examine cultural representations of the suburbs, home to a rapidly increasing proportion of the world's population. Focussing in particular on works that challenge c...

The majority of the world's population is now urban, and for most this will mean a life lived in the suburbs. City Suburbs considers contemporary Anglo-American suburbia, drawing on research in outer London it looks at life on the edge of a world city from the perspective of residents. Interpreted through Bourdieu's theory of practice it argues tha...

This monograph reports on a study comparing the regulation of internal housing space in Italy – since the introduction of broad, generic standards in 1975 – and in England, where there are no universal rules governing internal space. After tracing the evolution of standards in both countries from public health legislation in the late 19th century t...

Suburbia varies widely both between countries and within them. In some countries suburbanization represents the forcing out of the powerless from the center; in others it is a retreat from the center that allows the privileged to perpetuate their advantage. This article focuses on the latter model of suburbia which is common in, among other places,...

Book description: Second homes are once again a source of political and social contention in rural areas. The British government's decision to reduce Council Tax discounts on second homes in England in April 2004 has caused wide debate in local communities, local authorities, and the media. The debate has not only focused on the vexed Council Tax i...

THE URBAN REGENERATION CHALLENGE IN LEIPZIG AND MANCHESTER Through its work in Germany and in the United Kingdom, the Anglo-German Foundation seeks to foster dialogue and cooperation between the two countries. It supports research projects, seminars and conferences promoting the exchange of experience and ideas in the social, political and economic...

The impacts of second homes in the English countryside have concerned academics and policy makers since at least the 1960s. Often they are thought of as one of the numerous drivers of social exclusion in the countryside, and this has prompted periodic assessments of how changing policy frameworks might be used to address the 'second home problem'....

Wie erlebt die Stadt Leipzig die aktuellen gesellschaftlichen Umbrüche und worauf müssen sich urbanistische Forschung, Stadtplanung und Kommunalpolitik am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts einstellen? Als Ergebnis eines Forschungsvorhabens über die Entwicklungsperspektiven Leipzigs bis zum Jahr 2030 beschäftigt sich das Buch mit dem Wandel der Stadt unte...

Second homes have been a source of considerable controversy in Wales for more than three decades. In this article we argue that they have, in reality, become less important in recent times, with the market contracting during the 1990s and other more fundamental demographic changes and housing pressures coming to the fore. Second homes are a highly...

The focus of this paper is on the local factors that help explain variations in the use of affordable housing policy. We have attempted to identify first some of the key factors that inhibit the use of planning policy aimed at delivering affordable housing across both England and Wales. This discussion, whilst revealing problems common to rural are...

Looks at how the current and future role of the planning system and fiscal measures can respond to one particular form of external housing demand pressure: that generated by second homes. The report examines the impact of second (and holiday) homes in rural areas relative to a range of other pressures. It highlights key impacts and examines how aut...