Rtpi Library

`Susan Owens and Richard Cowell have given us an unflinchingly ambitious study of the politics, pitfalls and promises of "sustainability" not as a popular mantra but as a real, contested, deeply ambiguous and yet inspiring policy objective.'

John Forester, Cornell University

`It is an immensely challenging task to write incisively about sustainable development or planning; in Land and Limits Owens and Cowell provide rich and intelligent insight into both policy domains and their inter-relationships. Their thoughtful and constructive analysis of the ethical and political choices involved in turning sustainable development from concept to outcome ensures that theorists, reflective practitioners and planning students will find considerable reward to be derived from their illuminating arguments.' Heather Campbell, University of Sheffield

The first edition of this seminal book was written at a time of rapidly growing interest in the potential for land use planning to deliver sustainable development. With significant additional material, this new edition cements the status of Land and Limits as an authoritative, critical analysis in this field, offering careful theoretical reflection informed by evidence from key policy domains.

The book explores the impact of an influential idea - sustainable development - on the institutions and practices governing the use of land, and provides a rigorous discussion of concepts, policy instruments and contemporary dilemmas in `planning for sustainability'. A central theme is the paradox that, in spite of the expectation that this discourse would drive solutions promoting social, economic and environmental objectives simultaneously, land use conflict is as ubiquitous and intense as ever. After charting the remarkable growth in expectations of planning, the authors show how attempts to interpret sustainability must lead inexorably to moral and political choices of a fundamental kind. Important themes developed in the first half of the book are carried through into chapters that assess the role of planning in three vital areas: transport, biodiversity conservation and minerals extraction.

The second edition adds a Foreword by Professor John Forester as well as a substantial new Introduction by the authors. In this chapter, they reflect on the arguments propounded in the original book in the light of subsequent developments, and provide novel insights into the role of planning as a mechanism for learning to live within limits.