Recovering the politics of planning

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to recover the politics of planning with a focus on the state-planning tool ‘developer contributions’. We draw on David Harvey’s theory of accumulation by dispossession [(2003). The New Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press] and Spaces of Hope [(2000). University of California Press] to identify not only (new) spaces of inequality, but also cracks in contemporary capitalism—material and discursive spaces for alternatives. These theoretical foundations are invaluable in developing and building-on Engels’ discussions in ‘The Housing Question’ [(1872). Accessed March 3, 2016. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/housing-question/] and add complexity to the post-political perspective as championed by Erik Swyngedouw [(2007). “The Post-Political City.” In Urban Politics Now. Re-Imagining Democracy in the Neoliberal City, edited by Guy Baeten. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers]. In scrutinising the potentials of developer contributions within the contemporary housing question, Harvey is not only helping lay the foundation for more pragmatism within leftist camps, thus fulfilling an ethical imperative within planning. Harvey’s theories are also invaluable in terms of analysing empirical contradictions ‘on the ground’ that are more ambiguous than both Engels and Swyngedouw suggest. In order to make our case, we review existing literature on developer contributions, exploring the ways in which developer contributions can be analysed as both a sign of hope and as a disaster. We offer a dialectical reading, and make a proposal as to ‘what next’?