Rural state: limits to planning in rural society

This book develops a new and detailed understanding of the scope of planning and policy making in rural areas and assesses the power constraints within which planners operate.
The authors analyse rural planning from a political economy perspective, bringing together contemporary ideas on planning policy (predominantly urban based) to test their validity in the rural policy arena. This perspective recognizes that planning is a function of state activity and so a theory of the state is crucial to the analysis of planning and policy. The appropriateness of the idea of the rural state and rural policy and planning are assessed in the context of contemporary government and public policy.
The core of the book is an original case study of Gloucestershire which reflects the many aspects of state theory and policy making at local and central level and allows the analysis of the relationship between planning and social need by the examination of the detailed outcome of policy within a rural context.
This study is supplemented by international perspectives from Europe, North America, and New Zealand which broaden the scope of the debate and illustrate cross-national differences and similarities in planning the allocation of resources.
Academics in regional economics, economic and rural geography, planning, public administration, and public finance should find this book of value, as well as practitioners in all these fields.