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:
The Digital Archipelago: The Saviour of the Greek Economy
This Guest Blog by Emeritus Professor Klaus Kunzmann proposes a radical approach to Greece’s economic difficulties By Klaus Kunzmann Enough gloom and doom When reading all the gloomy stories about Greece, I have learnt much about banks and financial institutions, about the imperatives of debt reductions, about the growing conflict between the German culture of order…
Planning reform proposed in China’s growth strategy
This blog was first posted in August 2014. If you are 30 years old, then 260 million people have moved from rural China into its cities during your life time. This amounts to more than half of the current EU population. 117M moved in the decade between 2000 and 2010. Environmental pollution in many of…
Dr. Keith Thomas – An appreciation
The death was recently announced of Dr. Keith Thomas who for many years taught students of planning at Oxford Brookes University. The death was recently announced of Dr. Keith Thomas who for many years taught students of planning at Oxford Brookes University. Before moving to Oxford in the mid-1970s, Keith was a Senior Lecturer in…
Western Balkans Realities
In the early 1990s Yugoslavia began to disintegrate, triggering a series of vicious wars as ethnic groups contested territories. I have been doing some work looking at current development in the countries of the Western Balkans. Although conditions have certainly improved over the past decade, and the World Bank now rates them as “upper middle…
Why do we need to mainstream the historic environment?
Why do we need to mainstream the historic environment? http://www.befs.org.uk/news/84/49/Why-do-we-need-to-mainstream-the-historic-environment/d,Blog 25 November 2013
Cities of tomorrow – towers or tents?
Young people from Germany, Norway, Latvia, Poland, Russia and Scotland attended last week’s international youth summer school in Benmore, Scotland. The event was put on by Planning Aid for Scotland and by Innovation Circle. The theme was “Cities of Tomorrow”. I was asked to lead the introductory session. I started with a Powerpoint showing visions from 1913 and…
Going local – A new era for planning in Botswana
Posted April 21, 2014 by cliffhagueShare I was in Botswana recently. Planning there is going through a significant transformation. New legislation that came into force in April 2014 will see significant devolution of planning powers to 16 District-level authorities. Twelve of these are rural. As planning goes local the challenge will be to deliver a more…
For inclusive planning confront exclusion
To make places inclusive, planners and placemakers need to understand exclusion. ‘Make cities and human settlements safe, inclusive, resilient and sustainable’. SDG 11 set a clear path forward for planners. Making planning an inclusive process is a central theme of the New Urban Agenda. The RTPI has called for an ‘inclusive recovery’ from the Covid pandemic, saying that this…
Building collapses in Mumbai show need for new urban planning
Mumbai has been a powerful driver of economic growth in India over the past couple of decades. It is a mega-city with an estimated population of over 20 million. Much of the growth has taken place despite rather than because of planning. A spate of building collapses in recent weeks has prompted new debates about…
Using spatial data to deliver better health
Here in the UK the General Election has seen numerous skirmishes amongst the politicians about the National Health Service (NHS). They bombard us with figues in unimagnable “billions” of pounds. However, I have not seen any debate about how to make use of spatial data to make the NHS better informed and more responsive to…