UCD Professor of Planning, Mark Scott, launches a major new book on rural planning

UCD Professor of Planning, Mark Scott, recently launched a major new book on rural planning, co-edited with Prof Nick Gallent (UCL Bartlett School of Planning) and Dr Menelaos Gkartzios (Newcastle University Centre for Rural Economy). 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. The 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.

Editors:
Prof Mark Scott, University College Dublin
Prof Nick Gallent, University College London
Dr Menelaos Gkartzios, Newcastle University

Book reviews:
"This is a hugely impressive tome that fully succeeds in its aim of arguing for the reinvention of rural planning. The editors’ passionate belief in this recasting of rural planning shines through at every stage, not just in their opening and closing chapters and their introductions to each of the books’ nine sections but also in their input to seven of the other 54 chapters and getting on board 77 other contributors from 21 countries to provide critical reviews of the current state of play. This book should be essential reading for all those involved in rural planning and, because of its espousal of holistic approaches, it deserves to be read by urban planners too and indeed by everyone concerned with the future of Planet Earth." - Tony Champion, Emeritus Professor of Population Geography, Newcastle University, UK "Providing an inclusive perspective, The Routledge Companion to Rural Planning provides a fresh approach to analyzing rural realities. This edited volume should be mandatory reading for all planning curriculum whether it is in a rural-, regional- or urban-focused program. Not only is this book an outstanding resource for researchers, but it is an eye opening read for practicing planners, sociologists, and rural studies faculty and students. READ IT! You will never look at the countryside in the same way again." - Ann Ziebarth, Professor of Housing Studies, University of Minnesota, USA "The Routledge Companion to Rural Planning is a brilliant piece of work! This 'state-of-the-art' book is essential reading for anyone in either research or practice with an interest in rural vitalization and integrated rural and urban planning. The book presents a particularly useful focus on rural planning issues across developing countries." - Hualou Long, Professor of Human Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China