Planning for transitions? Exploring the interface between planning, politics and grassroots sustainability transitions

英国政府于2019年5月宣布进入气候紧急状态。截至2020年2月，408个区、县、单一制和大都市议会中有269个（65%）宣布气候紧急状态，以及8个联合当局/城市地区（气候紧急状态，2020年）。2019年6月，国家政府设定了到2050年实现净零排放的目标，而之前的目标是到那时至少减少80%。规划过程在促进建筑和自然环境中土地管理的可持续方法方面发挥着重要作用（威廉姆斯，2013年，Carroli，2018年;斯梅德比和Quitzau，2016年）。例如，如果《环境法案》和《农业法案》获得皇家同意，规划可以帮助提供“公共利益"（政府政策奖励环境改善，如改善土壤和水质）或净生物多样性收益（使环境和栖息地处于比开发前更好的状态）。这些举措被视为一种逐步变化（英国政府，2020年），很可能有助于向更“可持续”的发展模式迈进或过渡;然而，这些都是规划当局需要适应的相对较新的概念。我对英格兰西南部萨默塞特的一个集镇弗罗姆的博士研究对当地的民主和环境行动有重要的借鉴意义。自2011年以来，弗罗姆镇理事会由一群当地人以“独立弗罗姆（IfF）”集团的名义控制。联合会是一个无党派政治组织，通过绕过党派政治，打破了敌对、分裂的党派政治模式，采取了许多积极举措，包括重建镇理事会的行政管理，使其采用无党派的工作方式。IfF下的许多倡议，如寻求赋予当地弗罗姆河“自然权利”，是一些学者和活动家所称的“公地”-社区管理资源，具有社会和环境效益。弗罗姆的经验和成功的原因可以提供如何捕捉和重新定位当地机构对环境效益和社会福祉的见解。弗罗姆的故事还揭示了政治和“独立”行动者挑战既定制度的紧张局势，特别是在政府的地方主义政策议程下，利用承诺将权力交给普通人的权利时。例如，我的博士学位发现，由于规划系统的运作方式，社区规划强烈过滤了政府最低层的可用电力，同时巩固了一些地方电网。该研究金方案将通过两个讲习班与社区发展、政治和规划领域内已确定的利益攸关方合作，并将其聚集在一起，以扩大关于规划在过渡中的作用的讨论。第一个研讨会在DRIFT（一个广受尊敬的前沿学者联盟和欧洲转型网络的关键节点）举办，将探索和拓宽我的博士学位的更多理论路线，以探索转型中可持续发展的动态（见支持案例，博士摘要）。将欧洲的发展与英国的环境治理联系起来，将完善我计划在奖学金期间撰写的论文，允许对不同规模的过渡规划的政治进行批判性的描述。第二个关于英语背景的研讨会将加深我们对规划机制如何受到地方治理政治影响的理解。让不同的行为体参与，分享跨“规模”和“部门”的见解、挫折和机会，有助于克服机构孤岛，鼓励采取协作办法，培养和把握可持续性过渡。与智囊团和政策行动者合作，将使这些讨论“升级”为具体行动，支持一个吸取经验教训和政策转让的框架。

The UK government declared a climate emergency in May 2019. As of February 2020, 269 out of 408 (65%) District, County, Unitary and Metropolitan Councils declared a Climate Emergency, as well as eight Combined Authorities/City Regions (Climate Emergency, 2020). In June 2019, national government set a target of net-zero emissions by 2050, compared to the previous one of at least an 80% reduction by that date. The planning process has a significant role to play in promoting a sustainable approach to land management in built and natural environments (Williams, 2013, Carroli, 2018; Smedby and Quitzau, 2016). For instance, should the Environment Bill and Agriculture Bills receive Royal Assent, planning could help deliver 'public good' benefits (where environmental enhancements are rewarded by government policy, such as improved soil and water quality) or net-biodiversity gain (leaving the environment and habitats in a better condition than before development). These moves are heralded as a step-change (HMG, 2020) and could well support a move towards, or transition to, more 'sustainable' development patterns; however, these are relatively new concepts that planning authorities will need to adapt to. My PhD research on Frome, a market town in Somerset, South West England has important lessons for local democracy and environmental action. Frome town council is, since 2011, controlled by a group of local people under the guise of the 'Independents for Frome (IfF)' group. IfF is a non-party-political organisation and, by bypassing party-politics, has achieved many positive initiatives by breaking the mould of adversarial, divisive forms of party-politics; including reconstructing the administration of the town council towards non-partisan Ways of Working. Many initiatives under IfF, such as seeking to bestow 'nature rights' on the local River Frome, are what some scholars and activists term the 'Commons' - the community-management of resources with societal and environmental benefits. Frome's experiences and reasons for success can provide insights in how to capture and reorientate local institutions towards environmental benefits and social wellbeing. Frome's story also reveals the politics and the tensions of 'independent' actors challenging established institutions, particularly when using rights that promised to deliver power to ordinary people under the government's Localism policy agenda. For instance, my PhD found that Neighbourhood Planning strongly filtered the amount of power available at the lowest tiers of government due to the way the Planning system operates, whilst entrenching some local power networks. This Fellowship would work with and bring together identified stakeholders within community development, politics and planning through two workshops to broaden discussions on the role of planning for transitions. The first workshop, hosted at DRIFT (a widely respected consortium of cutting-edge academics and a key node in European transition networks) would explore and broaden the more theoretical lines of my PhD to probe the dynamics of sustainability in transitions (see Case for Support, PhD Summary). Tying in European developments to environmental governance to those in England would refine the papers I plan to write during the Fellowship, allowing a critical account of the politics of planning for transitions at different scales. The second workshop on the English context would deepen our understanding of how the mechanisms of planning are affected by the politics of local governance. Engaging different actors to share insights, frustrations and opportunities across 'scales' and 'sectors' could help to overcome institutional silos and encourage collaborative approaches to cultivate and capture sustainability transitions. Working with think tanks and policy actors would 'level up' these discussions towards concrete actions, supporting a framework for lesson learning and policy transfer.