ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents land-use planning in a capitalist society, and considers several themes crucial to an understanding of the British planning system in particular. It discusses resource distribution and, ultimately, the structuring of power in British society. The book explores area where the subject-matter of land-use planning and social science converge and overlap. It provides a preliminary discussion of land-use planning in Britain, and outlines the legal and institutional framework within which it operates. The book considers some possible developments and problems for planning in the future. Land-use planning is both a technical and a political activity, concerned with the allocation of scarce resources — land and capital. The book also discusses various strands from a relatively wide literature, at present dispersed and fragmented within conventional boundaries of the different academic disciplines which have a bearing on land-use planning.
