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There has been a recent growth in interest within planning theory in Actor–Network Theory. This article explores the potential for Actor–Network Theory to deliver a distinctive perspective on planning practice. Using a case study of commercial office development and the discussion of its carbon performance within the regulatory planning process, an Actor–Network Theory–based analysis is provided. The analysis points to the role of planning policy documents as intermediaries, the planning consent process as an obligatory passage point and energy-modelling exercises as potentially black-boxing low-carbon development. It also emphasises how materiality of the development embodies compliance with policy through the construction and warranting of evidence claims. In all these ways, the relationships between actants within networks are shaped. The practice-based conclusions draw attention to the importance of planners devising highly detailed and carefully worded plan policies, and understanding and being able to challenge the knowledge derived from energy-modelling tools as ways of developing agency to influence the outcomes of planning practice. Such agency is revealed by an Actor–Network Theory analysis to be small work in local sites of practice but set against the backdrop of regulatory regimes.

AbstractThe sustainable development agenda has influenced the focus of urban planning policy in many countries and localities; this article argues that its influence has been much more widespread, affecting not just the content of planning but also its discourses and practices. This reflects more profound shifts within society — shifts that put the governance of technology firmly centre‐place. Using a case study of the London Plan (the spatial development strategy for London), the discussion considers how recent debates on the Plan are being shaped by the need to focus on technological issues. Using Barry's and Feenberg's explorations of the technological society, the analysis identifies key features such as the contestation of evidence and expertise, the focus on technical details and the resultant reframing of policy discourse. The article concludes with suggestions as to the ways in which planning may change in the future.Résumé Les préoccupations liées au développement durable ont influé sur le cœur des politiques d'urbanisme dans de nombreux pays et localités. Leur influence s'est révélée beaucoup plus vaste, affectant non seulement le contenu, mais aussi les discours et pratiques en matière d'aménagement. Cette situation traduit des mutations plus profondes de la société, mutations qui donnent à la gouvernance de la technologie une solide prééminence. À partir d'une étude de cas sur le London Plan (stratégie d'aménagement spatial de Londres), est examinée la façon dont les récents débats sur le Plan sont modelés par la nécessité de s'attacher aux aspects technologiques. S'appuyant sur les explorations de la société technologique menées par Barry et par Feenberg, l'analyse identifie des caractéristiques dominantes telles que la contestation des éléments factuels et de l'expertise, la focalisation sur des détails techniques et, donc, le recadrage du discours de l'action publique. La conclusion présente les possibles évolutions futures de l'aménagement du territoire.

While modernist planning theory reifies knowledge as an object and makes it an inherent part of modernism's legitimacy, postmodern planning theory celebrates multiple epistemologies but fails to specify institutional arrangements for handling multiple knowledges in a way that recognizes the specificity of knowledge claims. An argument is made here for the limited variety of forms that such knowledge claims can take and the need to create spaces within planning processes for testing and recognizing these different knowledge claims.

Current literature on the new urban governance highlights the changes in patterns of relationships between actors at the local level, but also emphasises the continuing or even increasing importance of central government; in urban policy in particular there has been notable centralisation. Using a case study of urban regeneration within the Thames Gateway area of London, the paper examines the locus of power in the relationships between central and local government and the key economic interests; this allows a reappraisal of the claims of the local authority to be enabling development. The paper then turns to the language of enabling as found in policy and academic literature and argues both that changes in the language of policy have been distinctive and that this is actively contributing to the new urban governance. This analysis is grounded in a framework for considering the relationship of language to the policy process, proposing a rhetorical methodology of policy discourse analysis.