ABSTRACT
This chapter offers reflections on the findings of Planning Practice: Critical Perspectives from the UK, drawing on the individual chapters. It examines the limitations of reflective and deliberative practice through a re-examination of debates concerning communicative planning and collaborative practice. It also traces the shift from rational-scientific models of planning to evidence-based approaches and, latterly, to viability-based planning. The chapter draws attention to the structural constraints within which planning occurs and the limits they place on planning practice. The chapter also highlights how planning now occurs in the context of multi-level governance, raising the possibility of divergent practices. A further theme explored in the chapter is the increasing role of the private sector in shaping the performance of the planning system, with profound ethical and political implications. Finally, the chapter considers the likely future directions of planning practice, and considers the shifting purposes of planning in a context of rising inequality, austerity and a splintering state.
