9 - Professionalism and planning

Summary

Introduction

For many planners and those associated with development in the UK, it is taken for granted that planning is a professionalised activity. The existence of a professional body with 27,000 members, over 100 years old and holding a Royal Charter (the RTPI) might be seen as evidence enough of planning's professional status. The requirement for a postgraduate qualification for chartered membership of the RTPI and the existence of accredited degree programmes at 24 universities could be argued to cement its established professional status. In their daily working lives, planners frequently rehearse their professional qualifications in reports and at the start of evidence given at public inquiries, and some engage with ‘professional’ events and networks. Yet, to assume that planning occupies a settled realm of professional endeavour might serve to distract us from its often contentious history, its unsettled position among other built environment professions, and persistent questions as to the distinctive intellectual foundations that it claims. Placing these long- running debates against more recent societal shifts in the trust placed in professions and experts (Pfadenhauer, 2006; Swain and Tait, 2007; Parker et al, 2020), the contested role and power of professionals within neoliberal governance (Gibson et al, 2023), and the shifting institutional configurations of ‘professional’ work requires us to more coherently examine the nature of planning's claims to professional status (Muzio et al, 2013).

This chapter explores the contested terrain of contemporary planning professionalism. It briefly situates debates on the planning profession within wider theories of professionalism in society, before exploring contemporary trends and challenges that are shaping how professionals operate and are valued. In common with the rest of the WITPI project, we focus in particular on the testimony and experiences of professional planners. Drawing on focus groups, biographical interviews and ethnographic work, we examine what it means to be a ‘professional’ planner in contemporary workplaces. In doing so, we discuss the nature and setting of professional work, in both local authority and private consultancy environments, the ‘styles’ of professional work and how planners develop distinctive careers, and the ethical implications of being a professional and how it shapes key relationships with groups such as elected politicians and members of the public.