The regional imperative

Regional planning now has over a hundred years of significant history. Based on case studies and contemporary developments in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, this book is the first major explanation of the processes and nature of regional planning, providing an analysis of its political contexts and dynamics. The book traces the development of regional planning and the institutions associated with it; looks at the experience of regions changing their form under pressure from economic and political developments; and examines how regional planning and governance have responded to these pressures in the UK, the rest of Europe and the US. In concluding that regionalism is an imperative feature of politics in most countries, occurring right across the spectrum of forms of governance, the author offers a major appraisal of the significance of regional planning in an international context.