Race and Planning: The UK Experience

Drawing on a number of research studies of planning and urban policy, ace and Planning asks why racial equality has not been higher on professional and government agendas, and suggests strategies for those working on change. It considers key issues such as how planning activities might lead to more emphasis on the significance of racial equality; might currently it be unwittingly underpinning racial disadvantage? Alternatively, can planning help challenge racism and promote equal opportunities? The book's arguments are sensitive to the rapidly changing focus of the politics of race including: 'fortress Europe', Macpherson and modernism.

Drawing on a number of research studies of planning and urban policy, ace and Planning asks why racial equality has not been higher on professional and government agendas, and suggests strategies for those working on change. It considers key issues such as how planning activities might lead to more emphasis on the significance of racial equality; might currently it be unwittingly underpinning racial disadvantage? Alternatively, can planning help challenge racism and promote equal opportunities? The book's arguments are sensitive to the rapidly changing focus of the politics of race including: 'fortress Europe', Macpherson and modernism.

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Thomas, a reader in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cardiff University, examines the operation of the planning system in a society where race is a major social divide. He asks why racial equality has not been higher on professional and governmental agendas, and suggests strategies for those working for change. He looks into how planning can help challenge racism and promote equal opportunity, and considers how current efforts may be unwittingly underpinning racial disadvantage. The book draws on the British experience but with international comparisons. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Hue Thomas is Reader in the Department of City adn Regional Planning at Cardiff University. He is convenor of the Royal Town Planning Institute's Equal Opportunites (Race Relations) Panel. Over the last ten years he has conducted a series of funded research projects into aspects of race equality and planning.