Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design

Breheny, M J

doi: 10.1068/b190371pmid: N/A

Holtier, S

doi: 10.1068/b190375pmid: N/A

This paper is an attempt to outline, in an emancipatory fashion, a framework of thinking to deal with the general patterns of development. As decision problems in society are increasingly of a developmental nature compared with simple performance in equilibrium systems, the author pleads in favour of an operational approach centred on ‘the algebra’ of structural change. It is argued that for describing and understanding development patterns better we need a proper ‘structural’ and ‘ontological’ language. Such a language is thought to be Atkin's Q-analysis, which is used in this paper to study some fundamental patterns of development, common to wide classes of different systems.In Atkin's terminology this paper addresses a fundamental question: how does the backcloth structure come into being and how does it change through time?

Hebbert, M

doi: 10.1068/b190403pmid: N/A

The paper originated at an international congress of planning teachers organised by the Association of European Schools of Planning and American Collegiate Schools of Planning in 1991. It aims to offer a straightforward description of the genesis and development of the London School of Economics postgraduate programme in urban and regional planning. Planning at the LSE is unusual in being taught interdepartmentally by the three social science disciplines of economics, geography, and government. Students—whatever their background—must pass in all three subjects. The geographical origin and first degrees of students who have taken the MSc course since its foundation in 1966 are reviewed. The paper ends with an examination of some of the wider implications of the LSE programme philosophy of a nonprofessional, non-design-based, training for town planning, grounded in the social sciences.

Stiny, G

doi: 10.1068/b190413pmid: N/A

Algebras of shapes, Uij can be augmented with labels and weights to form new algebras, Vij and Vij, in which computations are defined by shape grammars.

Krishnamurti, R

doi: 10.1068/b190431pmid: N/A

The geometry of shapes made up of finite planes is considered in detail. Algorithms on maximal planes for performing shape arithmetic are developed.

Brotherton, D I

doi: 10.1068/b190465pmid: N/A

The degree to which local planning authorities (lpas) control development is readily measured by the refusal rate. A comparable variable, the strong refusal rate, is proposed to measure the control effected by central government ministers and their inspectors, the central planning authority (cpa), and it is shown how this may be calculated. Data from England and Wales and from the national parks and covering a fourteen-year period are analysed to gauge the control exerted by the cpa and by lpas over different types of development, at different times, and in different areas. It is shown that the cpa and the lpas both relaxed policy (as evidenced by the decisions they took) during the second half of the 1970s and that application quality improved (application quality being the extent to which applications conform to material considerations). This is interpreted as an efficiency change as the various parties sought to make applications more acceptable in the aftermath of the 1974 reorganisation. More generally, the analysis suggests that pronouncements by the cpa in circulars and elsewhere are not the prime determinants of the rigour with which the lpas, nor even the cpa, pursue control in practice. Typically and viewed nationally, lpas take the lead in determining policy tightness and, typically, the cpa follows, at least partially, the lpas' lead. In this regard, planning control is local led, with circulars influencing rather than directing policy.

Phelps, N A; Higgs, G; Kivell, P T; Cooke, P; Blomley, N K; Bracken, Ian; Evans, A

doi: 10.1068/b190479pmid: N/A