This book explores the relationship between one of the most important innovations in recent political discourse - environmental sustainability - and an idea which has slipped from public attention recently - planning. The authors, who are all leading scholars in the field of environmental politics, explore the different implications of sustainability for public planning in the industrialised world. Environmental sustainability has become one of the most salient issues on the policy agenda of nation-states. However, this book argues that planning is often, wrongly, ignored by advocates of environmental politics. Four major questions are addressed in this volume: what are the consequences of environmental sustainability for current patterns of social steering by the state and socio-economic planning? What lessons do earlier experiences of social and economic planning in Western democracies have for future sustainability planners? What challenges are generated for conventional socio-economic management by specifically environmental planners?
These topical issues are explored by contributors from different intellectual traditions; this makes Planning Sustainability ideal for students of political science, international and environmental politics and development studies as well as policy and public-policy makers. Wouter Achterberg, University of Amsterdam, Michael Jacobs, Fabian Society, Martin Janicke Free University of Berlin, Helge Jorgens, University of Berlin, Michael Kenny