Accidental antagonism? Technical governance and local struggles over housing numbers in southern England

摘要

Through case studies of the implementation of reforms framed as 'democratising' English housingnumbers governance, this article considers the emergence of space for the political in planning. It traces local struggles over policy rationalities and knowledge, finding new space for political conflict and its bounding by established practices. The case studies are argued to illustrate the potential for space for political dispute to emerge in periods of policy change. Yet conversely, they also show the resilience of technical-rational practices, suggesting gaps in our understanding of how change to a more democratic planning might occur.