ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses change is a relatively new phenomenon for planning it is not just change and the resolution of tensions that is the issue. It is about how and why planning has changed, the implications of this and what the future might hold. Analysing such a changing and fluid evolution of planning necessitates a framework to help us to understand how and in what ways planning has been reformed into neoliberal spatial governance. The creative and discretionary role of planners in 'smoothing over' the contradictions and helping to reconcile the tensions within neoliberal spatial governance is assisted, in part, by an ethos of planning that it is a set of beliefs and ideals that help to interpret and implement the broader, often national and non-spatial objectives.
