Gavin Parker
Professor of Planning Studies
Specialisms
- Expertise in planning,
- Neighbourhood planning; Community engagement and planning,
- Countryside planning,
- Local decision making,
- Land and property rights; Land use conflict
Location
Gavin has held the Chair of Planning Studies at the University since 2009. A chartered planner Professor Parker maintains a strong research interest in citizenship, participation, knowledge and the politics and governance of land, planning and development.
Gavin’s interests span the urban and rural divide and many policy fields. He has maintained a thread of research that is concerned with interactions and tensions between actors involved in planning and development throughout his research career. This has been manifest in the body of work he has produced on participation in planning, community action and neighbourhood planning in England, as well as the politics of planning and the role of the profession. He has a keen interest in the application of theory to practice and seeks to demonstrate the value of theory in his research and teaching as well as in dissemination to the public.
Gavin has served on numerous boards and committees, including Chair of the New Forest National Park Authority (2020-2023), Chair of the Community Council for Berkshire (2006-2011), and he is currently vice-chair of ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England). Between 2012-14, he was an executive director of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and subsequently he has served on numerous RTPI partnership boards, and on both the RTPI Policy committee and Education committee. He will be a sub-panel member for Architecture, Built Environment and Planning in the next Research Excellence Framework exercise due in 2029. Internationally, Gavin has developed an interest in land use, community and planning policy in Japan, and he has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Tokyo, Tsukuba and Seikei Universities over the past 20 years.
Amongst numerous academic and policy oriented publications, Gavin has authored eight books, namely: Citizenships, Contingency and the Countryside (Routledge, 2002); Key Concepts in Planning (Sage, 2012) with Joe Doak; Enabling Participatory Planning (Policy Press, 2018) with Emma Street; and Neighbourhood Planning in Practice (Lund Humphries, 2019) with Kat Salter and Matt Wargent - which won the 2019 RTPI Sir Peter Hall research excellence award. His fifth book is Contemporary Planning Practice: skills, specialisms and knowledge (Macmillan, 2021), edited with Emma Street. In 2024, he published Slow Planning? Timescapes, Power and Democracy with Mark Dobson. (Policy Press) and the edited work Rural Planning Futures (Routledge, 2025) and lastly, Time, Politics and Place: the temporalities of urban governance, edited with Mark Dobson (Policy Press, 2026).
Qualifications
- PhD Land, Citizenship and Property Rights (Bristol)
- MPhil Town Planning (London)
- BSc (Hons) Land Economy (London)
- Chartered Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute (FRTPI)
- Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS)
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
Current and recent PhD students
Francesca Bragaglia: The institutionalisation of social innovation in urban governance. Second supervisor (PoliTo)
Joe Doak: Five Hundred Years of Non-Linear History: Exploring Landownership, Property Development and its Social Regulation in Central Reading 1500-2000. First supervisor
Connie Hayes: Politics and Governance of Active Travel. Second supervisor
Esteban Rocha: Participatory Initiatives in Urban Planning: Conceptual Integration and Empirical Evidence from Emerging and Developed Countries. First supervisor
Fei Wang: Minority ethnic Community Participation and Policy Optimisation in China. First supervisor
Key Publications
- Parker, G. and Dobson, M. (2025). Time and the ‘temporal turn’ in planning theory and practice: an agenda. Town Planning Review, pp1-5 (ahead of print): https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/tpr.2025.35
- Parker, G. and Maidment, C. (2025). Planning education and the field of practice: a Bourdieusian analysis. Town Planning Review, pp1-22 (ahead of print): https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.20...
- Lynn, T., Sturzaker, J., Parker, G. and Wargent, M. (2025) Towards everyday conceptions of justice in community-led planning. Planning Practice & Research, 40(5), pp.972-990.
- Bragaglia, F., Homer, N. and Parker, G. (2025) Disentangling the multiple roles of neighbourhood planning consultants in the English planning system. A view from within. Planning Practice & Research, pp.1-13. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/026974...
- Parker, G. and Dobson, M. (2025). The moral economy of localism in England: neighbourhood planning as neoliberal ‘apprentice piece’. Territory Politics Governance. 13(4), pp.488-504.
- Scott, M., Sturzaker, J., Gallent, N., Parker, G., Burnett, A. and Mell, I. (eds.) (2025). Rural Planning Futures. Principles, Policy and Practice in the UK & Ireland. London: Routledge (pp.196)
- Parker, G. and Dobson, M. (2025). Examining the discourse of ‘delay’ in urban governance: project speed and the politicisation of time in the English Planning System. Cities, 158, p.105709.
- Dobson, M. and Parker, G. (2024). Slow Planning? Timescapes, power and democracy. Bristol: Policy Press (pp.181).
- Dobson, M. and Parker, G. (2024). The Temporal Governance of Planning in England: Planning Reform, Uchronia and ‘Proper Time’, Planning Theory, 24(1), pp.21-42
- Scott, M., Parker, G., Juntti, M., Castellino, J., Forero, O., Mell, I., Jerome, G., Amati, M., Hernandez, C., Buntine, C., Dodd, A., Hamiduddin, I., O'Brien, C., Lucocq, H., Lennon, M. and Blyth, R. (2024). The biodiversity crisis – planning for nature recovery? Planning Theory & Practice, 25(1), pp.103-140.
- Bragaglia, F. and Parker, G. (2024) The role and significance of planning consultants as intermediary-actors: between and amongst government, civic society and the market. International Planning Studies, 29 (1), pp.54-67.
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Gavin ParkerEnvironmental Planning and Policy
There is an ongoing and critical role for planning to help address environmental and climate change-related issues globally and locally. Environmental planning has developed as an important policy field in...
Planning 2 - Law, Negotiation and Ethics
Through this module students will analyse a site specific scenario, assessing it within the context of planning law, regulation and policy and exploring its implications for different stakeholders. The module...
Planning 1 - Policy, Theory and Governance
This module takes students through the process of preparing a policy framework, whilst exploring the application of planning theory to understand how this might influence the plan-making process. The module...
Rural Policy And Planning
This module examines current countryside issues and policies, with an emphasis on planning in England and Wales. ...
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Specialisms
- Expertise in planning
- Neighbourhood planning; Community engagement and planning
- Countryside planning
- Local decision making
- Land and property rights; Land use conflict
Location
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