Impacts of AirBnB regulation in New York
New York has long been a money spinner for AirBnB. In January 2023 there were 38,500 listings. As…
Planning a Refugee Camp
In 2010 the Commonwealth Association of Planners held its first Student Essay competition. The winners were Jeremiah Atho…
Kes Revisited – The welfare state and community in the late 1960s
Ken Loach’s film, Kes, was released in 1969. What does it tell us about life in a coalfield…
Place Identity, Participation and Planning
Link to buy
Regional and Local Economic Development
Link to buy
Cliff is a freelance consultant, researcher, author and trainer. He was the Chair of the Cockburn Association 2016 – 2023.
He is Professor Emeritus of Planning and Spatial Development at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
He is a Past President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and of the Commonwealth Association of Planners.
He is a past Chair of Built Environment Forum Scotland.
He was awarded the O.B.E. in the 2016 Birthday Honours.
Books
Some articles fromall categories:
Convenor, RTPI Scottish Branch, 1983
I was elected Convenor of the Scottish Branch of the RTPI for 1983. The picture shows how the Branch’s magazine reported it. Between 1975 and 1987 the Radical Institute Group (RIG) produced a manifesto backed by a slate of candidates in RTPI elections and also contested some Branch elections. In standing against the sitting vice-convenor…
What is a just city and how do we make it?
A free downloadable book explores the idea of a Just City. The Just City Essays: 26 Visions for Urban Equity, Inclusion and Opportunity aims to inspire ideas and practices to tackle the deep inequalities that mark our urban settlements. The team behind the venture invited 24 authors to address two questions: What would a just city look…
High rise, mud and shoddy housing – Prefab Story
Věra Chytilová’s film Panelstory is essential viewing for planners and housing professionals. Made in what was then Czechoslovakia in 1979, it shows residents (not) adjusting to life in a new high rise estate. While the prefabricated panels are swung by huge cranes through space against a blue sky, on the ground women struggle to push prams and buggies…
Stories of a Lifetime in 2000 Football Programmes
I have been busy with promoting my book ‘Programmes! Programmes! Football and Life from Wartime to Lockdown’. If you want to find out more here are some links. I did an event for the National Library of Scotland in conversation with my son, Prof.Euan Hague from DePaul University in Chicago. Including the Q&A, this runs for an…
Leading Change: Delivering the New Urban Agenda through Urban and Territorial Planning
Link to download for free
Cities and Climate Change
This blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 7 December 2011. We are facing a “deadly collision between urbanization and climate change”. This is the warning given in the 2011 Global Report on Human Settlements published by UN-Habitat. It comes at a time when expectation is rock bottom that governments will achieve a positive…
The Stern report 2006: an economic case for action on climate change
The Stern Report in 2006 seemed to signal a shift in attitudes to climate change. The article imagines a discussion between a Treasury mandarin and a businessman. Would this case convince Donald Trump or big business today? This article was first published in Planning on 1 December 2006, and is reproduced by kind permission of…
Do you want fries with that?
This first appeared in Planning on 31 May 2002 and is reproduced by kind permission of Planning Resource.
By Leaves We Live
How do you evaluate a landscape? It is a question that lies at the heart of decision-making on controversial developments in the countryside, such as wind farms or new highways. Since the 1970s landscape evaluation has become a very technocratic process, much to the frustration of many non-professionals who may care deeply about a place…
Is Polycentric Development still a recipe for Territorial Cohesion?
This blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 24 October 2011. The idea of polycentric development has been a cornerstone of European spatial planning for over a decade. But what does it mean? What does it imply for practice? How can we measure it? Is it now past its “sell-by date”? The…