Neo-liberal model of economic policy-making Essay -- Article Review, J

After reading the article from John Lovering, the first impression was that we, even those who are planners, sometimes forget what it means to be a planner and underestimate the importance of proper planning and its impact when practiced on a specific city or a region The fundamental argument that forms basis of the article is that the Neo-Liberal model which conceptualized and practiced planning for a couple of decades has been crashed. Now, as a planner, the main task is to help transform the physical and social legacies of Neo-liberal urban regeneration into resources for â€Å"real development† by converting failed exchange values into viable use values (Lovering, 2009). The article emphasizes the importance of contribution from the planners in achieving the goal. In the article, the arguments of the author seem to correspond to three fundamental arguments in regards to Neo-liberal approaches to planning. The three fundamental arguments of the author included criticisms of Neo-liberal model of economic policy-making, as well as the planning and planners during the era, and the possible ways to reconstruct through planning. The article started with criticisms of Neo-liberal model of economic policy-making. In this section, the first argument the author clearly stated that the Neo-liberal model is over, as well as its opportunity-driven pseudo-planning. According to the author, the â€Å"urban regeneration† which the Neo-liberalism supported, is more of a biased term for the urban construction which only created socially questionable and often environmentally harmful developments (Lovering, 2009). Looking at the absence of net growth in global employment during 1990s and 2000s while GDP per capita decreased, it is clear that the ur... ...ources and non-market opportunities. In this way, the benefit will be even spread among the public, disregards to their status. In practicing planning in the era of austerity, theory of Rational Comprehensive planning should be used to help planning. The classic rational process of rational comprehensive model which include identifying issues and opportunities, setting goals and objectives to collect data required to create alternatives, implementing the selected alternative, and monitoring and evaluating the solutions (Shipely, 2010). In terms of land used planning, there is no simple right solution. Because all the planning theories have both positive and negative sides of it, planners must learn to balance between theories to achieve broader social goal, while maximizing the equality among the people from the benefits which they must be getting as a public.