Abstract

Land use planning and spatial planning are an important part of the procedural regulatory arrangements for the broad domain of environmental management. In presenting arrangements for the regulation of land use and development and in devising visions for the future trajectories of land and property development, any tendency to become detached from the essential bedrock with which they are concerned – the land resource itself – must be resisted. In effect, a principal concern with bureaucratic finesse loses touch with the distinctive features which characterise land – its complex of property rights, its tendency to market failures, its dysfunctionality with respect to information and location, and its highly politicised and contested nature. This paper examines the turn to a land use strategy in Scotland and considers some likely implications for planning practices.