Reconsidering Localism [Paperback]

Localism has been deployed in recent debates over planning law as an anodyne, grassroots way to shape communities into sustainable, human-scale neighborhoods. But local is a moving category, with contradictory, nuanced dimensions. Reconsidering Localismbrings together new scholarship from leading academics in Europe and North America to develop a theoretically-grounded critique and definition of the new localism, and how it has come to shape urban governance and urban planning.

Moving beyond the UK, this book examines localism and similar shifts in planning policy throughout Europe, and features essays on localism and place-making, sustainability, social cohesion, and citizen participation in community institutions. It explores how debates over localism and citizen control play out at the neighborhood, institutional and city level, and has come to effect the urban landscape throughout Europe. Reconsidering Localism is a current, vital addition to planning scholarship.

Chapter 1: Introduction  Part One: The Local in Localism  Chapter 2: Localism: Institutions, territories, representations  Chapter 3: Paradoxes of local planning in contested societies  Chapter 4: Localism agendas and post-political trends: Neighbourhood policy trajectories in Denver  Chapter 5: Localism and the post-social governmentality  Part Two: Localism and Democracy  Chapter 6: Civic capacity, place governance and progressive localism  Chapter 7: The Promise of democracy? Civic enterprise, localism and the transformation of democratic capitalism  Chapter 8: The community capacity to plan: The disproportionate requirements of the new English neighbourhood planning initiative  Chapter 9: Is small really beautiful: The legitimacy of neighbourhood planning?  Part Three: Localism and Sustainability   Chapter 10:l³!