Bargaining with Nature: The Discourse and Practice of 'Environmental Planning Gain'

Abstract

In this paper we explore the role of planning discourse and practice in the social construction of nature through the example of recent debates about the use of planning gain mechanisms to generate environmental 'benefits', such as nature reserves and country parks. This idea gained currency in British planning policy circles in the late 1980s at a time of intense economic and political pressures to release more rural land for development. The significance of 'environmental planning gain' rests, we argue, in its powerfulness as an idea rather than as a practice. As such, it can be seen as a strategic representation of the planning system as a bargaining process and of the 'natural environment' as a 'product' in the land development process.