ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Regions in evolution: a history of regional planning

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 09 | URBAN FUTURES

Speaker

John Harrison (Loughborough University)

Description

There is an inherent contradiction in regional planning: “never before has the necessity for effective regional governance and planning been so great” (Soja 2015, p. 379) and yet there are those who argue “regional planning as we know it is now defunct and something we need to get used to” (Harrison et al 2021, p. 6).

This paper adopts an historical perspective to understand how we arrived at this position. It is part of a wider project examining the history of regional planning – or from our perspective, the intersection of regions and planning – as seen through the lens of the Regional Studies Association and Regional Studies.

Dividing the history into five eras (pre-1967, prehistory; 1967-1979, professionalisation; 1979-2007, neoliberalism; 2007-2020, whithering; 2020- , futures) this presentation will focus on the spatial aspect of ‘planning regional futures’ (Harrison et al., 2022). Tracing the continuities and discontinuities between eras we reveal transitions in how ‘the region’ has been mobilised in regional (planning) studies. This historical perspective allows us to reveal consolidation around several key spatial concepts and regional imaginaries after period where the region has arguably been stretched and extended to its breaking point. All of which presents critical questions for planning regional futures: e.g. does the consolidation of regional thinking around several core spatial concepts represent old ideas made good, or are we lacking new ideas?

All of this is set against the backdrop that in 1967, when the journal Regional Studies was first published, the first concept and approach mentioned in was ‘regional planning’ and all the papers focused on Regional Planning. Half a century later, the 50th anniversary special issue of Regional Studies did not mention planning whatsoever. As we consider transitions in regional planning, our research attempts to situate these discussions in this broader historical context by tracing regions and planning in evolution.