The ‘authoritarian turn’ in environmental planning? examining the conflict over shale gas ‘fracking’ in England

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to critically examine the changes in the dominant regime within environmental planning in England. Scholars have argued that although a ‘post-political regime’ had come to dominate English planning at the beginning of the last decade, the ongoing economic crisis and ‘perpetual austerity’ have led to a rise in right wing populism and a turn towards authoritarian rhetoric and governance. The planning literature has yet to contribute to the conceptualisation of the ‘authoritarian turn’, and the literature on authoritarianism has yet to examine its implication for environmental planning decisions at an institutional level. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to filling these gaps. The thesis’ starting point is a tentative hypothesis that there is a turn towards more authoritarian (yet still neoliberal) planning regime following a crisis in the ‘postpolitical’. Using a Political Discourse Analysis approach, the thesis examines the highly contested case of shale gas fracking to show how the political challenge from an anti-fracking movement has undermined the legitimacy of a ‘post-political regime’. Through the analysis of: planning and policy documents and other related texts, 23 unstructured interviews with the different sides of the conflict, and nonparticipant observation of protest sites the thesis traces the emergence of an increasingly authoritarian planning regime in two key shale gas planning decisions (in Lancashire and North Yorkshire) and subsequent government interventions in the planning process. The move towards the new regime is conceptualised as increasingly executive led, punitive and antagonistic, drawing on a ‘state of exception’ to justify central government’s interventions and the bypassing of existing democratic processes. The authoritarian turn, however, is limited by legal and political provisions that govern shale gas fracking in England. The thesis shows, and provides a novel framework for analysing, the crisis of post-political planning and an ongoing authoritarian turn