Examining the discourse of ‘delay’ in urban governance: project speed and the politicisation of time in the English Planning System

Parker, G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3079-4377 and Dobson, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8599-9797 (2025) Examining the discourse of ‘delay’ in urban governance: project speed and the politicisation of time in the English Planning System. Cities, 158. 105709. ISSN 1873-6084 doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2025.105709

Abstract/Summary

While a growing body of work has been produced on the temporalities of urban governance and planning, limited attention has been paid to questioning how time is deployed through the application of chrono-technologies (Nowotny, 1994). Drawing on governmental and industry grey literature and empirical data, this paper examines the discourse of delay and ‘project speed’ surrounding planning policy and practice in England. Prompted by sustained accusations of planning ‘delay’, we chart how the use of political time (Howlett and Goetz, 2014) and ‘time talk’ (Lazar, 2019) features heavily in shaping urban discourse, and becomes subject to storytelling (Sandercock, 2003a,b) and prevailing chronotopes (Mulíček et al., 2015). It is demonstrated how long-run temporal narratives focussing on speed and delay in planning are signifiers for securing a governmentality that asserts certainty and growth as overriding priorities. This politicisation of time and practice holds significant implications for democratic governance more widely.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/120127
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.cities.2025.105709
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > Real Estate and Planning
Publisher	Elsevier
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