Spatial rationalities and the possibilities for planning in the New Urban Agenda for Sustainable Development

Abstract

This chapter traces the emergence of global debates about urban policy and planning in multi-lateral governance forums that put enormous, possibly untenable, pressure on planners to deliver sustainable development. In the ushering-in of a more city-centric and pro-planning era that has taken place over the last few years we focus in particular on the process through which a dedicated 'Urban Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)' was adopted by the United Nations' SDG process in 2015 and the subsequent development of a 'New Urban Agenda' (NUA) for global development policy, adopted by UN-Habitat's bi-decennial conference, Habitat III, in Quito in Ecuador in October 2016. The chapter argues that these initiatives are just the start of a process of implementing and monitoring priorities for housing provision, infrastructure investment and land development that have significant potential for reconfiguring the role and understanding of local government in general and the more specific role of spatial planning.