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
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Regional and Local Economic Development
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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:
Opportunities and threats for Territorial Cohesion
Opportunities and threats for Territorial Cohesion: Blue Growth and Urban Poverty, Report from the ESPON Open Seminar in Nafplion – Greece, 4 and 5 June 2014 (2014) Co-author.
The future of our urban parks and greenspaces
The value of parks needs to be rethought in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic. “People are now beginning to see the value of parks.” This was a central message from New York City Parks Convenor Mitchell Silver, during our public conversation on Zoom on 25 June 2020, as part of the Cockburn Association campaign…
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…
What’s new about the New Urban Agenda?
This blog was first posted in February 2018. South Africa is engaging fully with the New Urban Agenda, and posing some fundamental questions about what it means to be a planner in today’s world. Confession: I only went into one session at the World Urban Forum today. Lest it seems that I was skipping classes,…
International study of healthy cities and neighbourhoods launched
This itemwas first posted in 2018. A major project to compare urban practices in 14 cities will be led by a team based in Glasgow University in Scotland. A £7.1 million research project into urban conditions and practices has been awarded to Glasgow University. The money will be used to conduct research over a 4 year period,…
A critical decade for cities
This blog was first posted in June 2015. There will be another 2 billion people living in urban areas by 2030. With a billion people now living in slums,and over 100,000 homeless people in Delhi, for example, it is no exaggeration to say that this is a critical decade for cities and the practice of…
New opportunities for maritime spatial planning and Blue Growth
The concept of maritime spatial planning has been given a significant boost by a couple of recent actions in the European Union. As Maria Damanaki, EU Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, has commented, “Governments are waking up to the fact that we have just about reached the limit of what can be squeezed from…
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…
Leading Change: Delivering the New Urban Agenda through Urban and Territorial Planning
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New housing and regeneration practices for difficult times
Guest blogger, the distinguished Hungarian researcher and consultant, Iván Tosics, reflects on radical alternatives to address today’s urban challenges. This Guest Blog is contributed by Iván Tosics, an internationally renowned housing and planning expert. The photo above shows new housing for refugees in Freiburg, Germany. I have the feeling that our normal life is melting down. Leandro Erlich,…