Planning Against the Political collects leading planners and political theorists' new essays on territorial planning and governance's subversion of democratic process and ethos.

Chapter 1 The contested terrain of European territorial governance: new perspectives on democratic deficits and political displacements Jonathan Metzger, Philip Allmendinger, Stijn Oosterlynck Chapter 2 Post-political Regimes in English Planning: From Third Way to Big Society Philip Allmendinger, Graham Haughton Chapter 3 In search of the irreducible political moment: Or why planning shouldn't be too hung up on conflictuality Kristina Grange Chapter 4 Opposing the Postpolitical Swedish Urban Discourse Moa Tunström, Karin Bradley Chapter 5 Rethinking politics and the (post-)political through Deleuze-Guattarian micropolitics Matthias Loepfe, Joris van Wezemael Chapter 6 Impossible common ground: planning and reconciliation John Pløger Chapter 7 Hopeless postpolitics, professional idiots, and the fate of public space in Stockholm Parklife Jonas Bylund, Andrew Byerley Chapter 8 Conflict Management, Democratic Demands, and the Post-Politics of Privatisation Mike Raco Chapter 9 Planning as War by Other Means Mekonnen Tesfahuney, Richard Ek Chapter 10 The moose are protesting: trans-species politics in transport infrastructure development Jonathan Metzger Chapter 11 Insurgent Architects and the Spectral Return of the Urban Political Erik Swyngedouw, Japhy Wilson

Jonathan Metzger is Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional studies at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. He has a broad social scientific background and concrete experiences from working as a planning practitioner on the regional and transnational levels. His research interests include spatial theory, the ethnography of planning practice and more-than-human perspectives on urban planning and regional development.

Philip Allmendinger is Fellow of Clare College and Head of Department / Professor of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge, UK. He has published extensively in the areas of property and planning, planning theory, policy and practice, land and property regulation, housing and local government.

Stijn Oosterlynck is Associate Professor in Urban Sociology at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He is the chair of the Research Centre on Inequality, Poverty, Social Exclusion and the City (OASeS) and of the Antwerp Urban Studies Institute. His research focuses on the political sociology of urban development and planning and local social innovation and welfare state restructuring.