“Provides important contribution to understanding planning as a practice…valuable reading for both practitioners and researchers of planning and policy implementation” Lisa Olsson, Dept Urban Studies, Malmo University "The authors very rightly note, new public management and neoliberalism seek to redefine and re-imagine professions like planning more along market lines. The ability to harken back to an early set of foundational principles offers planners other ways of legitimising their role. This book provides an engaging and compelling account of the functioning of these processes at the coalface of planning." Journal of Social Policy "There is no other book that so effectively illuminates the politics of contemporary planning - from the ideological drift of neoliberalism to the hard decisions on planning's front line. It should be on the reading lists of every university course in planning, housing, property development and urban studies." Dr Geraint Ellis, Queen’s University Belfast “In studies of the changing nature of planning, opinions are more common than empirical analyses. This is where Clifford and Tewdwr-Jones excel. In their rich and detailed exploration of the modernisation of planning they have produced an impressive account that adds to our understanding of change from the perspective of frontline planners.” Professor Phil Allmendinger, University of Cambridge