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The age of the manager is over? Shale gas fracking and the challenge to the post-political regime for English planning

Lookup NU author(s): Gareth Fearn

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

© 2021 The Author(s). Planning systems developed through the period of ‘normative’, ‘third way’ neoliberalism were critiqued as being ‘post-political’. Planning systems were developed that bypassed political conflicts through technocratic and consensus-seeking approaches following a so-called ‘end of history’ in which left/right ideological conflicts were deemed settled. Following the North Atlantic financial crisis of 2007/8 though, scholars have begun to question whether this is a suitable critique of planning, and state institutions more generally, as political and economic conditions shift. This paper examines a case of an exemplar post-political planning system: England. The paper identifies three key logics of a ‘post-political regime’ for planning: techno-managerialism, consensus and participation. Through an analysis of texts and interviews of contested planning decisions made over shale gas fracking sites, this paper shows a ‘post-political regime’ for planning facing a crisis of legitimacy as it is challenged by an anti-fracking movement and reactionary interventions from central government. The paper provides an institutional level analysis of the crisis of post-political planning, which has lost legitimacy amidst the slow collapse of normative neoliberalism.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Fearn G

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Political Geography

Year: 2022

Volume: 93

Print publication date: 01/03/2022

Online publication date: 26/11/2021

Acceptance date: 16/11/2021

Date deposited: 23/06/2022

ISSN (print): 0962-6298

ISSN (electronic): 1873-5096

Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102550

DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102550

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