Environmental Planning

In recent years a new participatory governance dynamic has been redefining relationships and responsibilities in the planning and implementation of policies and programmes. Participatory governance not only crosses public, private and associational sectors, but is also intra-organisational. It allows for individual and collective participation and challenges longstanding norms of institutional behaviour.

This book examines fresh evidence relating to planning, conflict mediation and public decision-making processes in civil society by bringing together a multi-disciplinary team of academics and practitioners from North America, Europe, Africa and Australia. In an analysis which spans institutional perspectives and operational concerns, the contributors explore the dynamics of stakeholder involvement as deliberative processes constructed around the core idea of shared responsibility. The book draws out important principles as to how this diversity of engagement can translate itself into more effective public decision-making.

A research report on the state of play on services in rural Northern Ireland, prepared by a team from the School of Environmental Planning at Queen's, has been published by the Rural Development Council (RDC). The report was commissioned as part of the wider rural baseline initiative of the RDC. At the launch of the study the Chief Executive of the RDC welcomed the questions and challenges set out in the analysis and indicated that the research has persuaded the RDCto realign its current programmes, as well as reshape its thinking on future policy and programmes.

The report was prepared by John Greer, David Houston, Michael Murray and Brendan Murtagh. It contains the results of a questionnaire survey of the membership of Rural Community Network, a comparative review of services in rural England and Scotland, and three case studies relating to rural transport, ATMs and waste recycling.

Copies of the report can be obtained from Rural Development Council, 17 Loy Street, Cookstown, Northern Ireland, BT80 8PZ.

RURAL PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT IN NORTHERN IRELAND

Accounts of planning and development in Northern Ireland tend to be dominated by Belfast as a case study. Less profile in published work exists for the smaller towns, villages and countryside that have moved during the 1990s to become a central concern of public policy. Rural affairs now command widespread popular interest, not least because of the many initiatives that have been brought forward in partnership with rural people. One such initiative is the Northern Ireland Regional Development Strategy, adopted by Members of the Legislative Assembly in late 2001. This offers a consensus-driven framework to guide planning and development activities over the next twenty- five years and is at pains to highlight the inclusion of rural society, comprising its economies and communities, in this vision of the future. In Rural Planning and Development in Northern Ireland, the contributors unravel the personalities of, contemporary challenges for, and policy responses to rurality. The implications of this anlaysis are set against the promises and expectations of the Strategy and raise the provocative conclusion that its perceived transformational capacity may well be overstated. Rethinking rural planning and development in Northern Ireland remains an enduring quest.

PARTICIPATORY RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

With funding from the EU LEADER 2 programme, under the auspices of the Rural Innovation and Research Partnership between Queen's University and the Rural Development Council, a major project was completed in 2002 on participatory rural planning and development. There were a number of strands to this work. First, within Northern Ireland a new spatial strategy for regional development was approved by the Northern Ireland Assembly in September 2001. A key feature of the preparation process included the need to give voice to the concerns of rural Northern Ireland, not least in connection with the Examination in Public which was convened to consider the draft strategy. A major evaluation of how the rural was interpreted during the strategy preparation period was carried out and published as a research monograph in:

Murray, M and Greer, J (2000) The Northern Ireland Regional Strategic Framework and its Public Examination Process - Towards a New Model of participatory Planning? Rural Innovation and Research Partnership, Belfast. ISBN 0853897786.

A second component of the research project focused on participatory village planning. The key aim here was to examine how spatial planning can connect with social and economic development though bottom-up involvement in the strategic planning process at the local scale. The principal output from this work comprises the publication of a planning manual:

Murray, M and Greer, J (2001) Participatory Village Planning: Practice Guidelines Workbook. Rural Innovation and Research Partnership, Belfast, ISBN 0853898049.

EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INTERDEPENDENCE IN RURAL NORTHERN IRELAND

In January 2001 the Northern Ireland Rural Community Network commissioned research on how the practice of equity, diversity and interdependence (EDI) could be advanced within voluntary organisations, public agencies and government bodies whose brief is dealing with rural society. The rationale behind the project argues that if rural people are being challenged to embrace these values in their activities, then so also should the many bodies with which they interact. The research locates the key themes of EDI within the literature on social exclusion and reports attitudes to EDI obtained from a questionnaire survey and a suite of semi-structured interviews. The final report was submitted in 2002:

Murray, M and Murtagh, B (2002) Reconnecting with rural people through authentic dialogue: equity, diversity and interdependence in the Northern Ireland rural development arena. Rural Community Network, Cookstown.

The research has contributed to the publication of a "Workbook on Equity, Diversity and Interdependence (EDI) in rural society", prepared by the Rural Community Network and published in Summer 2003

RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

Over the period since 1992 substantial research has been undertaken in the United States, especially in Colorado. The focus has been on community led revitalisation and institutional responsiveness through collaborative governance. Insights have informed teaching and professional practice in Northern Ireland. Key outputs include:

Murray, M and Dunn, L (1996) Revitalising Rural America: A Perspective on Collaboration and Community. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.

Murray, M (2000) Social capital formation and healthy communities: insights from the Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative. Community Development Journal, Vol 35, No 2, pp99-108.

A current research project in Colorado is examining the relationship between physical planning, limited stakes gambling, historic preservation and small town economic regeneration.

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT IN NORTHERN IRELAND

The Northern Ireland Economic Council, an advisory body to Government, commissioned collaborative baseline research on the state of play regarding local development activities and structures in Northern Ireland in 1999. This background paper was published in December 2000:

Hart, M; Murray, M; Keane;M and Smyth, M (2000) Local development in Northern Ireland - The Way Forward. Northern Ireland Economic Council, Belfast.

The analysis and recommendations were subsequently endorsed by the Council in its report Local Development: A Turning Point (Occasional Paper 13).

BRACE 2000

BRACE is an acronym for the Blackwater River Agency for Community Enhancement. It embraces seven village and rural communities in the Blackwater Valley in Northern Ireland, covering an area of some 90 sq km. During the 1990s there was an enormous growth in the number of local rural development associations from a base of less than than 10 in 1990 to well over 500 by the end of the decade. Many of these groups prepared strategies for their area using consultants or their own expertise. However, many strategies tended to be imitative of one another and were often thinly disguised bids for funding from Government or EU initiatives. In the case of BRACE there was a conscious attempt to prepare an 'umbrella' strategy on the

Murray, M and Greer, J (1998) Strategic planning for multi-community rural development: insights from Northern Ireland. European Planning Studies, Vol 6, No 3, pp255-269.