Planning for transitions? Exploring the interface between planning, politics and grassroots sustainability transitions
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Surrey
Department Name: Centre for Environment & Sustainability
Abstract
The UK government declared a climate emergency in May 2019. As of February 2020, 269 out of 408 (65%) District, County, Unitary and Metropolitan Councils declared a Climate Emergency, as well as eight Combined Authorities/City Regions (Climate Emergency, 2020). In June 2019, national government set a target of net-zero emissions by 2050, compared to the previous one of at least an 80% reduction by that date.
The planning process has a significant role to play in promoting a sustainable approach to land management in built and natural environments (Williams, 2013, Carroli, 2018; Smedby and Quitzau, 2016). For instance, should the Environment Bill and Agriculture Bills receive Royal Assent, planning could help deliver 'public good' benefits (where environmental enhancements are rewarded by government policy, such as improved soil and water quality) or net-biodiversity gain (leaving the environment and habitats in a better condition than before development). These moves are heralded as a step-change (HMG, 2020) and could well support a move towards, or transition to, more 'sustainable' development patterns; however, these are relatively new concepts that planning authorities will need to adapt to.
My PhD research on Frome, a market town in Somerset, South West England has important lessons for local democracy and environmental action. Frome town council is, since 2011, controlled by a group of local people under the guise of the 'Independents for Frome (IfF)' group. IfF is a non-party-political organisation and, by bypassing party-politics, has achieved many positive initiatives by breaking the mould of adversarial, divisive forms of party-politics; including reconstructing the administration of the town council towards non-partisan Ways of Working. Many initiatives under IfF, such as seeking to bestow 'nature rights' on the local River Frome, are what some scholars and activists term the 'Commons' - the community-management of resources with societal and environmental benefits.
Frome's experiences and reasons for success can provide insights in how to capture and reorientate local institutions towards environmental benefits and social wellbeing. Frome's story also reveals the politics and the tensions of 'independent' actors challenging established institutions, particularly when using rights that promised to deliver power to ordinary people under the government's Localism policy agenda. For instance, my PhD found that Neighbourhood Planning strongly filtered the amount of power available at the lowest tiers of government due to the way the Planning system operates, whilst entrenching some local power networks.
This Fellowship would work with and bring together identified stakeholders within community development, politics and planning through two workshops to broaden discussions on the role of planning for transitions. The first workshop, hosted at DRIFT (a widely respected consortium of cutting-edge academics and a key node in European transition networks) would explore and broaden the more theoretical lines of my PhD to probe the dynamics of sustainability in transitions (see Case for Support, PhD Summary). Tying in European developments to environmental governance to those in England would refine the papers I plan to write during the Fellowship, allowing a critical account of the politics of planning for transitions at different scales. The second workshop on the English context would deepen our understanding of how the mechanisms of planning are affected by the politics of local governance. Engaging different actors to share insights, frustrations and opportunities across 'scales' and 'sectors' could help to overcome institutional silos and encourage collaborative approaches to cultivate and capture sustainability transitions. Working with think tanks and policy actors would 'level up' these discussions towards concrete actions, supporting a framework for lesson learning and policy transfer.
The planning process has a significant role to play in promoting a sustainable approach to land management in built and natural environments (Williams, 2013, Carroli, 2018; Smedby and Quitzau, 2016). For instance, should the Environment Bill and Agriculture Bills receive Royal Assent, planning could help deliver 'public good' benefits (where environmental enhancements are rewarded by government policy, such as improved soil and water quality) or net-biodiversity gain (leaving the environment and habitats in a better condition than before development). These moves are heralded as a step-change (HMG, 2020) and could well support a move towards, or transition to, more 'sustainable' development patterns; however, these are relatively new concepts that planning authorities will need to adapt to.
My PhD research on Frome, a market town in Somerset, South West England has important lessons for local democracy and environmental action. Frome town council is, since 2011, controlled by a group of local people under the guise of the 'Independents for Frome (IfF)' group. IfF is a non-party-political organisation and, by bypassing party-politics, has achieved many positive initiatives by breaking the mould of adversarial, divisive forms of party-politics; including reconstructing the administration of the town council towards non-partisan Ways of Working. Many initiatives under IfF, such as seeking to bestow 'nature rights' on the local River Frome, are what some scholars and activists term the 'Commons' - the community-management of resources with societal and environmental benefits.
Frome's experiences and reasons for success can provide insights in how to capture and reorientate local institutions towards environmental benefits and social wellbeing. Frome's story also reveals the politics and the tensions of 'independent' actors challenging established institutions, particularly when using rights that promised to deliver power to ordinary people under the government's Localism policy agenda. For instance, my PhD found that Neighbourhood Planning strongly filtered the amount of power available at the lowest tiers of government due to the way the Planning system operates, whilst entrenching some local power networks.
This Fellowship would work with and bring together identified stakeholders within community development, politics and planning through two workshops to broaden discussions on the role of planning for transitions. The first workshop, hosted at DRIFT (a widely respected consortium of cutting-edge academics and a key node in European transition networks) would explore and broaden the more theoretical lines of my PhD to probe the dynamics of sustainability in transitions (see Case for Support, PhD Summary). Tying in European developments to environmental governance to those in England would refine the papers I plan to write during the Fellowship, allowing a critical account of the politics of planning for transitions at different scales. The second workshop on the English context would deepen our understanding of how the mechanisms of planning are affected by the politics of local governance. Engaging different actors to share insights, frustrations and opportunities across 'scales' and 'sectors' could help to overcome institutional silos and encourage collaborative approaches to cultivate and capture sustainability transitions. Working with think tanks and policy actors would 'level up' these discussions towards concrete actions, supporting a framework for lesson learning and policy transfer.
Publications
| Description | The Fellowship has contributed to several originally intended outputs set out in the proposal, including the publication of articles on the topic of independent politics and governing for the Commons (based on Frome's experiences and the scaling out of the Flatpack Democracy movement), community-based placemaking and the politics of sustainability planning. The Fellowship aimed to work with and bring together identified stakeholders, many of whom may work on different elements of local action - placemaking, politics and planning. Some of the originally intended objectives have been met, some were adapted due to the online nature of the working environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while some other activities did not take place - though gains were made through an adaptive approach taken by the Research Fellow. Objective 1. To develop my extant publishing track record by producing papers and other publications for a range of audiences. Intended: to produce c.4 papers during the Fellowship. 2022 Update: I was active in generating content based on my PhD and the wider issues of the monitoring and evaluation of transformative action and sustainability governance. I experienced some delays in the peer review process which set my timetable back of some intended papers. As of the date of this submission, I have submitted three papers for peer review which include papers based on transformative metrics and regenerative value to underpin redistributive/circular greening incentives (a book chapter due for publication this Semester), a collaborative paper on the role of sustainability platforms for transformative governance (under peer review), a paper on spatial autonomy and the case of Frome (re-submitted for peer review), friendship and homophily and the role of social bonds as a vehicle for social exclusion in sustainability initiatives (reviewer comments received and need to be actioned). Additionally, I have a paper due for publication on regenerative value and the planning system in the forthcoming Town and Country Planning (TCPA) journal. I have also developed a paper on Frome's Neighbourhood Plan and low-carbon, community-based planning (which will be submitted in the coming days). While I had hoped most of these would have been published by now, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic peer review was delayed, or my own capacity to generate papers or address comments was a setback. I shared my research in several international fora during the Fellowship, including the Climate Expo (May, 2021), the Sustainability Research Innovation conference (June, 2021) and the ICPP5 Barcelona (July, 2021). 2023 update: In 2023, I have been working on producing a book based on my PhD and subsequent work on regenerative value and revising papers submitted for review during the Fellowship. I am hopeful these will be published later in 2023. Both the TCPA paper and the one on regenerative metrics were published in 2022. Objective 2. To distribute my PhD findings by engaging actors who use planning and local politics to promote positive climate action in an English and European context. Intended: A national-level workshop would help to share insights, frustrations and opportunities to effect more positive transitions at different scales and in different 'sectors', helping to overcome the challenge of institutional silos and encourage more collaborative approaches to cultivate and capture sustainability transitions. I planned to hold an additional workshop for a European audience working with key transition academics and practitioners to determine unmet needs to create reflexive and accountable responses to climate emergencies and to capture 'transitions' in monitoring and accountability mechanisms. In these workshops I sought to explore the role of information sharing, incentives towards promoting climate action, matching stakeholder needs and interests to maximise sustainability impact, and reconsidering 'value' in political and planning systems. A key part of this Fellowship would involve building active relationships at the policy-practice interface of local government, such as the TCPA, NALC and ECOLISE. I also intended to explore the role of planning and independent/post-party-political governance in supporting accelerated learning and action in new environmental governance arising from the proposed Environment Bill.. 2022 Update: ECOLISE, work at the interface between community-led initiatives (many of whom challenge business-as-usual climate solutions) and incumbent institutions across Europe, and were a project partner in the Fellowship. Early on in the Fellowship, I actively participated with ECOLISE-based researchers, or their close collaborators, to contribute to the design of a Community of Practice (CoP) which would bring together 'New Economy' actors seeking to realise transformative action into a network of community groups. I also contributed to several knowledge commons Wikis on my subject area, independent politics, Flatpack Democracy, deliberative design and citizens assemblies, which is used as a tool to support grassroots, transformative action. I also collaborated with other ECOLISE partners, including participating in an Urbana-led training on transformative and just cities and actively sharing ideas with a European-based researcher on transformative monitoring and evaluation, including giving feedback on the launch of a tool being developed through the researcher's PhD. I also worked closely with the Flatpack Democracy 2021 Campaign Team (which aimed to scale up the independent, Flatpack Democracy movement in the 2021 local elections) which informed my subsequent engagement work and allowed me to update various papers based on my PhD with new insights. I also engaged with the new Resilience Manager at Frome Town Council which will inform the writing of a book that I continued to work on during the Fellowship which will update my PhD findings for a wider audience to explore the potential for Frome's model to support locally-led climate solutions and the role of the planning process to deliver this. Working with Flatpack actors led to an introduction to a Transition-orientated organisation, New Prosperity Devon (NPD), and Cornwall Council's experimentation with doughnut economics which led to practical discussions on sustainable procurement supply chains and the inclusion of social enterprises in a county-wide context and NPD has since sought my expertise on how these can be effectively monitored and evaluated. 2023: An abstract summarising the work I have done with NPD has been accepted and will be submitted in the Summer to complement other co-author perspectives on social enterprise. I am planning on submitting a funding proposal around these ideas, New Investigator Grant/Middlesex or potentially seeking other grant support. I have also sought to build out these broader ideas with partner eCulture solutions and am seeking funding at the moment (March 2023). 2022 update: I had planned to co-produce a toolkit for capturing local transitions to support planners, local government and those working at the interface between community-led initiatives to monitor their progress towards sustainable development. For instance, capturing key transition events (including the greening of local government supply chains and creating categories of transition, i.e. governance or attitudinal transitions). During my Fellowship, I have also produced a collaborative dataset to map tools and approaches to encourage a circular economy and regenerative value. As part of this endeavour, I actively worked with international researchers (ECOLISE and other European and US-based researchers) as well as UK-based organisations such as the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) to explore the role of digital sustainability platforms in meeting this need. I also worked closely with GIS software developers to explore how local-level climate governance could be improved with greater access to information and how this could support the visibility and scalability of bottom-up solutions on climate and ecological action. 2023 update: I have been working with Devon-based eCulture solutions to bring to life the ideas I explored in my Fellowship in terms of locally-relevant platforms for sustainable action and monitoring and evaluation. We are presently seeking other partners to submit a bid and have gained the support of the Devon-based Integrated Care System, who is keen to utilise the model in their work, which will be built out when funding is secured. 2022 update: I also launched a survey on monitoring and evaluation of the needs of town and parish councils and other groups and what additional tools and resources were needed to respond to climate and ecological emergency declarations. The findings of this study have been welcomed by NALC which in many ways echoes some of the research they have carried out to date and I have been invited to talk to the findings in NALC's climate emergency group in May. Speaking at this event will also enable me to speak to Frome's success and the conditions for policy transfer and lesson learning within the local government and community sector. 2023 update: the 'Fighting Climate Change' event in May 2022 was an important arena to share my work, get feedback from local councils and also spark ideas to respond to climate and ecological emergencies at a local level. The presentation was also shared with the Parish & Town Councillors: Playing a Key Role in Creating Green and Resilient Communities, organised by 'Flackpack' activists and those with links to transition and local government. 2022 update: While the national workshop didn't take place due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the online nature of the working context meant I could share my findings within the ESRC-supported Festival of Social Science (FOSS) event in November. Here, I was able to use the event to explore with different actors their share insights, frustrations and opportunities across 'scales' and 'sectors' in how to overcome institutional silos and encourage collaborative approaches to cultivate and capture sustainability transitions, as well as the potential role of independent politics to facilitate this. Almost 100 people registered for the event (though the actual participants was much less than this) but people have since viewed my presentation via a CUSP-blog I wrote on the event. I also benefited from various capacity-building activities including trainings in an ESRC-supported innovation training and an ESRC-supported workshop delivered by CECAN on evaluating complexity. Being part of the CUSP network greatly enhanced by knowledge, capacity and network by being able to explore key areas of interest with leading academics and policy experts as well as contribute my own emerging ideas to the CUSP network to help further refine them. For instance, I was invited to contribute to peer-reviewing outputs for a Sessional Roundtable: The Importance of Biodiversity Risks for Actuaries (June, 2021). There are several promising future avenues for collaboration within CUSP as a result my engagement within this Fellowship. 2023 update: I have liaised with other CUSP members on how they might support the community-based asset mapping of social and ecological value, which looks like it will support the practice-based partnerships cultivated since my Fellowship. CUSP has also been a fora to share updates on my ideas around regenerative value, planning and place-making in the context of natural capital markets. 2022 update: I also benefited from participating in several research fora, such as the 2020 European Environmental Evaluators Network (EEEN) sustainability transitions conference, a 2021 Net-Zero Westminster Forum and the 2021 Transformations conference and other workshops and seminars, which also helped to expand my knowledge and network. 2023 update: my new role at Middlesex University continues to deepen my network in environmental governance and natural capital/policy influence more generally. |
| Exploitation Route | I hope that my Fellowship has generated increased interest and awareness in independent politics as a vehicle for transformative sustainability action. Researchers and practitioners interested in this area can read my publications to stimulate ideas for how to scale out this governance approach for locally-driven, socio-political change. Already, some people reported they would be interested in standing as an elected councillor on the basis of their participation in the FOSS event. The ideas in the papers on regenerative value and digital sustainability platforms contain practical tools and framework to stimulate ideas for new or improved mechanisms to weave in fair and positively reinforcing incentives and governance architecture, which could be used by academics, local government, community groups and policy-makers alike. Local councillors can use new climate data layers within Parish Online to inform effective climate governance and evaluation of impacts at a community level or use them to inform community-based planning processes and tools, such as Neighbourhood Plans. 2023 update: I will be actively seeking councils and social enterprises and other place-based entities to become part of the asset-mapping digital solution I've been pursuing with others, which is very exciting in terms of making these ideas come alive. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/p/blog-ab-innovations-in-politics/ |
| Description | I was invited to present to a National Association of Local Councils event on climate action by parish councils where I presented work carried out during the Fellowship supported by the ESRC (net-zero survey) and innovations in town and country planning relevant for climate and ecological emergency planning at a local level. My work with eCulture Solutions has influenced the design of an innovative solution for local-level social return on investment solutions using asset-based community development approaches (funding being sought to operationalise). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | Academic research contributing to shaping modules on sustainable planning |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| URL | https://www.academia.edu/75820708/Securing_a_Regenerative_and_Just_Planning_System |
| Description | Engagement with policy, planning and digital service providers on platforms to support climate emergency declarations |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
| Impact | Addition of new data layers for localised environmental governance (GIS) |
| Title | Survey: Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability of Climate and Ecological Emergencies and Action |
| Description | The purpose of this survey was to ascertain the needs of different users on what tools and approaches may be useful to help them monitor and evaluate climate and ecological emergencies (which may also encompass tools that measure the SDGs). The target audience was Local government councillors and staff, community groups, businesses and other end-users of sustainability reporting tools. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Interest in NALC to inform their work on climate emergencies and local councils. Data linked to concept of regenerative value - with findings included in a presentation on regenerative value (full publication and analysis of findings tbc) |
| URL | https://express.adobe.com/page/TyM7eOfNYmmxH/ |
| Title | Tools and approaches to encourage a circular economy and regenerative value |
| Description | A database that documents the different tools and approaches in what can be considered 'Regenerative Value'. This is intended to be a co-produced tool that others can add to in order to create a robust document on models that can contribute towards a circular economy in different areas. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | None as yet. Only just released. |
| URL | https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13M5eEOAIX81mIjV1Y0GW6E3IAg2GLqRyuAqxPnvKfEM/edit?usp=sharing |
| Description | Peer Review of biodiversity outputs for the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries |
| Organisation | Institute and Faculty of Actuaries |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Peer review of a Introduction to biodiversity valuation tools and metrics paper, as part of the IFoA Biodiversity and Natural Capital Working Party. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Peer review and constructive comments to the paper. |
| Impact | Enhancement of Actuaries' knowledge on biodiversity which can be used to improve future biodiversity-informed risk and investment |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | CUSP Blog relating to FOSS event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blog published on the CUSP website about the FOSS event held on 29th November and a position statement of the issues relating to the monitoring and evaluation of climate and ecological emergencies and the potential for independent politics to be a transformative tool in localised environmental governance. Led to increased views of the FOSS event recording and presentation (110 subsequent views of presentation). Led to contact from others keen to build a community of practice on these issues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/p/blog-ab-innovations-in-politics/ |
| Description | ESRC FOSS Event - November 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The aim of this event was to deepen our understanding of the relationship between politics and local governance that can affect sustainable outcomes. The session provided insights on how to reorientate local institutions towards environmental benefits and social wellbeing where these involve working with local councillors, planners or other community groups interested in positively shaping where they live. In particular, the event explored 'Flatpack Democracy', a local political movement that seeks to 'break the mould' of party-politics through the election of groups of independent councillors and reflected on the experiences of Frome (Somerset) and other places replicating this approach and discuss the reasons for success and challenges in moving beyond party-political approaches. The event will be informed by a survey on stakeholder needs to monitor and evaluate climate and ecological emergencies. The session aimed to inform debates on the future of politics and placemaking in the context of post-Brexit and post-Covid recovery and renewal. Known outcomes: Participants reported they would consider standing as an independent in the next local elections Post-event engagement with a Parish Councillor in how to effectively monitor and evaluate climate emergencies using online sustainability platforms and subsequent introduction and engagement with Geoxsphere on these issues Engagement with the National Association of Local Councils on the challenges facing local councils in acting and reporting on climate and ecological emergencies New knowledge of independent politics and Frome's experience/Flatpack Democracy that was used to share beyond party-political approaches in other political science departments |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/innovations-in-politics-and-planning-for-sustainable-transformative-a... |
| Description | Engagement with New Prosperity Devon on relocalised development and regenerative supply chains |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | My work on regenerative value and Flatpack Democracy progressed through the Fellowship led to discussions with social enterprise New Prosperity Devon about how to build county-wide system change towards recognised development, including supply chains, planning processes and effective environmental-community governance for climate and ecological emergencies. Led to an invitation for me to be part of an Evaluations reference group for a project that is contributing to sustainable supply chains by working with local institutions and relocalised actors/social enterprises, funded by the UK Government-funded Community Renewal Fund. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://www.the-sse.org/courses/devon-social-entrepreneurs-programme/ |
| Description | NALC 'Fighting Climate Change' - invitation to speak |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Due to the research I carried out during my Fellowship and the contact I had made with the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), I was invited to speak as a panel expert at an event aimed at supporting local (parish and town) councils on climate and ecological emergencies and to suggest best practice. It was an opportunity to present the work from the survey on net zero transitions I did during my Fellowship. The audience found the ideas sparked ideas they could implement in their own councils and signpost them to potential methods and innovative approaches. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://express.adobe.com/page/BR88Ce9DbhmDs/ |