Disparate goals, progressive ideals? Professional biographies of planners in the UK and their ideas of ‘mission’

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, we utilise data from biographical interviews to examine the values held by UK planners and whether and how they promote progressive planning ideals in their everyday work, often despite countertendencies in planning systems and organisational priorities. Our research concurs with the idea of a mildly progressive, yet conservative, positioning: in Hillier’s (2002) terms, some planners are ‘on a mission’ but these missions vary from common-good orientations, a desire to do ‘better’ planning in a putative public interest, to more justice-based commitments to certain progressive ‘causes’ such as particular publics, cultural heritage, special places, or the environment.