The Routledge Companion to Rural Planning provides a critical account and state of the art review of rural planning in the early years of the twenty-first century. Looking across different international experiences – from Europe, North America and Australasia to the transition and emerging economies, including BRIC and former communist states – it aims to develop new conceptual propositions and theoretical insights, supported by detailed case studies and reviews of available data. The Companion gives coverage to emerging topics in the field and seeks to position rural planning in the broader context of global challenges: climate change, the loss of biodiversity, food and energy security, and low carbon futures. It also looks at old, established questions in new ways: at social and spatial justice, place shaping, economic development, and environmental and landscape management. Planning in the twenty-first century must grapple not only with the challenges presented by cities and urban concentration, but also grasp the opportunities – and understand the risks – arising from rural change and restructuring. Rural areas are diverse and dynamic. This Companion attempts to capture and analyse at least some of this diversity, fostering a dialogue on likely and possible rural futures between a global community of rural planning researchers. Primarily intended for scholars and graduate students across a range of disciplines, such as planning, rural geography, rural sociology, agricultural studies, development studies, environmental studies and countryside management, this book will prove to be an invaluable and up-to-date resource.

Introduction to Rural Planning: Economies, Communities and Landscapes provides a critical analysis of the key challenges facing rural places and the ways that public policy and community action shape rural spaces. The second edition provides an examination of the composite nature of ‘rural planning’, which combines land-use and spatial planning elements with community action, countryside management and the projects and programmes of national and supra-national agencies and organisations. It also offers a broad analysis of entrepreneurial social action as a shaper of rural outcomes, with particular coverage of the localism agenda and Neighbourhood Planning in England. With a focus on accessibility and rural transport provision, this book examines the governance arrangements needed to deliver integrated solutions spanning urban and rural places. Through an examination of the ecosystem approach to environmental planning, it links the procurement of ecosystem services to the global challenges of habitat degradation and loss, climate change and resource scarcity and management. A valuable resource for students of planning, rural development and rural geography, Introduction to Rural Planning aims to make sense of current rural challenges and planning approaches, evaluating the currency of the ‘rural’ label in the context of global urbanisation, arguing that rural spaces are relational spaces characterised by critical production and consumption tensions.

This book, first published in 1983, provided the first thorough and informative introduction to the theory, practice and politics of rural settlement planning. It surveys the conceptual and ideological leanings of those who have developed, implemented and revised rural settlement practice, and gives detailed analysis of planning documentation to assess the extent to which policies have been successfully implemented. Paul Cloke assesses the shortfalls of rural planning and resource management and suggests methods by which a sustainable rural future might be attained. This reissue provides essential background and a comprehensive handbook for those with an interest in rural settlement planning.

Providing an overview of rural (spatial) planning for students on planning, geography and related programmes, this book charts the major patterns and processes of rural change affecting the British countryside, its landscape, its communities and its economies in the twentieth century. The authors examine the role of ‘planning’ in shaping rural spaces, not only the statutory ‘comprehensive’ planning that emerged in the post-war period, but also planning and rural programme delivery undertaken by central, regional and local policy agencies. The book is designed to accompany a typical teaching programme in rural planning and considers: the nature of rural areas and the emergence of statutory planning in England the agents of rural policy delivery and the potential for current planning practice to become a ‘policy hub’ at the local level, co-ordinating the actions and programmes of different agents economic change in the countryside and the influence planning has in shaping rural economies social change, the nature of rural communities and recent debates on housing and rural service provision environmental change, the changing fortunes of farming, landscape protection, and the idea of a multi-functional landscape made by forces that can be shaped by the planning process key areas of current concern in spatial rural planning, including debates surrounding city-regions, the rural the challenge of managing rural change in the twenty-first century through new planning and governance processes. A comprehensive coverage of the forces, processes and outcomes of rural change whilst keeping planning’s influence and role in clear view at all times.

This book aims to contribute to the current debate on how to integrate rural development policies and landscape planning in rural areas. It highlights the key issues at stake and the possibilities for synergies between landscape planning and policies in light of European development policies, particularly the EU’s Rural Development Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Case studies from different rural contexts and landscapes are provided, illustrating tools and options to make the advocated integration operational. Recommendations and guidance to policy making are proposed. The case studies presented cover 1) the use of visual assessment techniques to support landscape planning in rural areas; 2) participative applications of landscape assessment techniques in peri-urban areas; 3) multi-scale approaches to landscape management in Alpine areas and 4) the application of landscape economic evaluation to foster rural development strategies.

This book provides an international perspective on rural planning, focused on developing countries. It examines conventional development planning and innovative local planning approaches, drawing together lessons from recent experience of rural planning and land use. The authors examine past and current practice and ways that land use planning and management of natural resources can underpin sustainable local livelihoods. They draw on case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America to present findings relevant throughout the developing world.

For America’s rural and suburban areas, new challenges demand new solutions. Author Randall Arendt meets them in an entirely new edition of Rural by Design. When this planning classic first appeared 20 years ago, it showed how creative, practical land-use planning can preserve open space and keep community character intact. The second edition shifts the focus toward infilling neighborhoods, strengthening town centers, and moving development closer to schools, shops, and jobs. New chapters cover form-based codes, visioning, sustainability, low-impact development, green infrastructure, and more, while 70 case studies show how these ideas play out in the real world. Readers —rural or not—will find practical advice about planning for the way we live now.

This book, first published in 1983, provided the first thorough and informative introduction to the theory, practice and politics of rural settlement planning. It surveys the conceptual and ideological leanings of those who have developed, implemented and revised rural settlement practice, and gives detailed analysis of planning documentation to assess the extent to which policies have been successfully implemented. Paul Cloke assesses the shortfalls of rural planning and resource management and suggests methods by which a sustainable rural future might be attained. This reissue provides essential background and a comprehensive handbook for those with an interest in rural settlement planning.

This book meets the needs of teachers and students of agriculture and rural development project and programme planning, planners employed by governments in developing countries and by external financing agencies. Project planners must understand the aspirations of rural families and their local leaders, the national development and sector planning goals and policies of their governments and the development goals and policy priorities perceived by external financing agencies in relation to their countries. These areas are not always consistent and trade-offs may be required. However it is recognised that poor project planning is a major constraint to the sustainable realization of project and programme objectives and sector goals. Illustrated with case studies and logical framework matrices, this book presents well-established and relatively new practices followed in the context of agriculture and rural development project and programme planning. Although based on experiences gained in Africa, the issues described are relevant to planning problems encountered in other developing regions of the world. It addresses the main factors which affect the success of planning such as a government's ability to guarantee macro-economic stability and sound sector development policies; the shift from 'top-down', bureaucratic to 'bottom-up', participatory planning approaches and the roles played by external financing agencies. It explains key technical, financial, economic, environmental, socio-cultural, equity, gender and institutional-strengthening issues concerning planning in rural areas and reviews the planning tools and approaches available. The procurement of goods and services, the disbursement of funds and monitoring and evaluation requirements are examined in detail.

Study relates chiefly to the Bihar plain.