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Working in the public interest? Spatial planning and the future of public service professional labour

为公共利益而工作？

基本信息

批准号：
ES/P011713/1
负责人：
Malcolm Tait
金额：
$ 69.26万
依托单位：
University of Sheffield
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2017 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FP011713%2F1
关键词：
Working public interest Spatial planning

项目摘要

This study proposes the first major investigation in the UK into the increasing involvement of private companies in carrying out professional spatial planning work formerly conducted by local government. In the postwar era, decisions about urban development were justified with the idea that state-employed planners served a unified public interest. As politically-neutral bureaucrats working in government, they stood above particular interests to serve a common good. Although this 'public interest' justification has long been challenged it remains important for professional practice. However, over the last 20 years organisational reforms (intensified by austerity) have seen some planning functions of the state devolved to local communities, while the role of the market has been expanded with the private sector increasingly delivering planning services. Nearly half of all UK Chartered Planners now work for private firms and the Government seeks to extend private sector involvement. Despite this, there has been little research on the effects of privatisation on professionalism and how the public interest is understood in planning. To fill this gap, we will focus on 3 key areas: 1. The extent and nature of private sector involvement in planning; 2. The implications of this involvement for planners' understanding of their professional role, 3. The consequences of this involvement for traditional justifications of planning activities as in the 'public interest'. The project will use: -archival work to trace how 'the public interest' is understood in planning: undertaking a history of the concept in relation to changing public/private arrangements for service delivery -focus groups, co-produced with the Royal Town Planning Institute, to provide an up-to-date account of the new public and private organisational arrangements for planning in the UK -biographical interviews, to develop reflective discussion among planning professionals on the way that these new organisational arrangements have changed their understanding and practice relating to professionalism and its role in securing the public interest -in-depth case studies of the contexts in which private sector professionals work to explore how ideas of 'professionalism' and the 'public interest' are defined and realised through the day-to-day practices and interactions of various professionals, politicians and citizens involved in local planning. It will answer five research questions: 1. How have the roles of the public and private sectors in delivering public interest planning goals changed over the post-war period? 2. Through what public/private organisational forms is planning now delivered? 3. How have professional planners working in diverse settings adjusted to changing organisational arrangements, what 'professional' work do they do, and how do they define and understand their professional identity? 4. What effects do different organisational configurations have on the ways that planning's contested public interest purposes are defined and realised, particularly in relation to the complexities of place, democracy, and local politics? 5. How can 'public service' professional labour be reimagined as a means of better realising public interest goals, and challenging dominant understandings of what public services can and should legitimately deliver? As the first empirical study of how privatisation is influencing UK planning, the project will make several ground-breaking contributions to knowledge. It will provide academics with an innovative framework for understanding how these profound changes are reshaping what it means to be a 'professional', and the nature of decision-making in the 'public interest'. Finally, it will generate debate about how professionals might better realise the public interest in the future; highlighting the potentials but also the dangers of the commercialisation of public sector work.

这项研究建议在英国对私营公司越来越多地参与以前由地方政府进行的专业空间规划工作进行重大调查。在战后时代，关于城市发展的决策是合理的，因为国家雇佣的规划者服务于统一的公共利益。作为在政府中工作的政治中立的官僚，他们站在特殊利益之上，服务于共同利益。尽管这种“公共利益”的理由长期以来一直受到质疑，但对于专业实践来说，它仍然很重要。然而，在过去20年里，组织改革(由于紧缩而加强)见证了国家的一些规划职能移交给地方社区，而市场的作用已经扩大，私营部门越来越多地提供规划服务。近一半的英国特许规划师现在为私营公司工作，政府寻求扩大私营部门的参与。尽管如此，关于私有化对专业精神的影响以及如何在规划中理解公众利益的研究很少。为填补这方面的空白，我们会集中讨论3个主要范畴：1.私营机构参与规划的程度和性质；2.这种参与对规划者理解其专业角色的影响；3.这种参与对规划活动的传统理据如“公众利益”的影响。该项目将使用：-档案工作，以追踪如何在规划中理解“公共利益”：与改变公共/私人提供服务的安排有关的概念的历史-与皇家城市规划研究所共同制作的焦点小组，以提供英国新的公共和私人规划组织安排的最新描述-传记采访，促进规划专业人士就这些新的组织安排改变他们对专业精神及其在保障公众利益方面的角色的理解和做法的方式进行反思性讨论-深入研究私营部门专业人员工作的背景，探讨如何通过参与地方规划的不同专业人员、政治家和市民的日常做法和互动来界定和实现“专业精神”和“公众利益”的概念。它将回答五个研究问题：1.公共和私营部门在实现公共利益规划目标方面的作用在战后期间发生了什么变化？2.现在通过什么公共/私人组织形式来提供规划？3.在不同环境中工作的专业规划师如何适应不断变化的组织安排，他们做的是什么专业工作，以及他们如何定义和理解自己的专业身份？4.不同的组织结构对规划有争议的公共利益目标的定义和实现方式有什么影响，特别是与地点、民主、那么地方政治呢？5.如何将“公共服务”专业劳动重新想象为更好地实现公共利益目标的一种手段，并挑战关于公共服务能够和应该合法提供什么的主流理解？作为私有化如何影响英国规划的首个实证研究，该项目将对知识做出几项开创性的贡献。它将为学者们提供一个创新的框架，让他们了解这些深刻的变化如何重塑作为一名专业人士的含义，以及符合“公共利益”的决策的性质。最后，它将引发关于专业人士未来如何更好地实现公共利益的辩论；突显出公共部门工作商业化的潜力和危险。