ABSTRACT
We have argued that the late 1970s and early 1980s saw the debate about planning fragmenting into advocacy of a number of distinct styles. The fragmentation arose out of a crisis in planning, a massive lack of confidence in the dominant approach of the postwar period. The debate about different planning styles has been part of the process by which a new dominant approach has emerged in the 1980s. An important part of this debate has been local experimentation with different styles, which we have explored through our six case studies. But this period of local experimentation is now drawing to a close. The prevailing political climate suggests that market-led styles will increasingly dominate planning policy. In this chapter, we consider the prospects for the future direction of planning policy in the 1990s and set out the problems and contradictions of the market-led approach, together with an agenda for an alternative debate which could challenge the new orthodoxy.
