The Politics of Transition

Table of Contents

1. Frontmatter

2. Chapter 1. Introduction: Political Fragmentation and Opportunity for Climate Action in a Changing World

   Amy Burnett

   Abstract

   We are living in an age of accelerating awareness of our need to reduce our environmental impact. If the news headlines, multiple reports and academic articles are to go by, to put it lightly, as a species and with us the many flora and fauna upon which our actions are inextricably tied, we are in trouble. The current rate of environmental destruction, species decline, population growth, the use of fossil fuels, pollution, declining food security, drought, flooding and obesity are all trends that, left unchecked, will adversely impact human and environmental well-being. This book is set within growing attention to the ‘political’ within sustainability transitions—the extent to which societies are moving towards more sustainable forms of living and where social and technical re-orderings result in sustainable goal-directed pursuits. We home in on an innovative case study of the market town of Frome, which is becoming increasingly known for its bold green action and its fiercely ‘independent’ character. Frome Town Council has, since 2011, been controlled by a group of local people under the guise of the ‘Independents for Frome (IfF)’ group. IfF is a non-party-political organisation and has, by bypassing party politics, been able to achieve many positive initiatives by breaking the mould of adversarial, often divisive party politics, including reconstructing the administration of the town council towards non-partisan Ways of Working (WoW). By showcasing development and governance alternatives in Frome, this book seeks to shed light on the complexities and realities of Frome’s success, either for those seeking to replicate the Flatpack Democracy model or for those involved in community—based planning (e.g., neighbourhood planning) who seek to cultivate positive placemaking. Frome’s experiences in using the planning process as a vehicle to secure strong environmental and social benefits at the local level and the reasons for success, or otherwise, can provide insights into how to capture and reorientate local institutions towards these ends. Frome’s story also reveals the politics and tensions of ‘independent’ actors challenging established institutions, particularly when using rights that promised to deliver power to ordinary people under the government’s UK’s localism policy agenda, which claims to “give power” to local-level actors.

3. Chapter 2. Sustainability Transitions in the Context of the English Localism Regime

   Amy Burnett

   Abstract

   How we will transition to a net-zero, nature-positive, just society involves managing competing visions of what needs to be done, by whom and on what scale. The planning system affects the way tensions are dissipated, contained and spread, particularly regarding the manifestation of sustainable development in practice, itself a sometimes contentious term that many agree is open to interpretation. In this chapter, we explore how the field of sustainability studies known as sustainability transitions can shed light on the politics of planning. For instance, how planning negotiations can contribute to the wider management of place-based normative assumptions on what is the right kind of ‘sustainable development’ as different actors (such as communities, town and parish councils, local planning authorities, landowners and developers) navigate institutions and informal spaces that influence development outcomes. To do so, we chart notable environmental discourses and their potential use and negotiation in the planning process and how planning scholars have thus far addressed transitions in the literature. We also explore how these insights tie into wider debates on environmental and social movements, democracy, accountability and UK environmental policy in the context of climate and ecological emergencies.

4. Chapter 3. The Politics of Planning in Delivering Sustainable Visions of Development

   Amy Burnett

   Abstract

   Planning policy sets the tone for development and the wider social and institutional networks that influence how we shape places, known as placemaking. Planning procedures (i.e. planning applications, consultation channels etc.) structure the negotiation through which different actors negotiate, compete and cooperate to influence place-based outcomes. For instance, determining what buildings are built or not built, in what form, what uses they enable (such as housing, employment, mixed development, or retail) how sustainable they are, who can access them, who gets to have a say in how and whether they should be built at all, how the natural environment is protected and what community facilities are safeguarded or prioritised. How a place is developed has lasting effects, where decisions made by planners today affect the physical scene through which our lives are played out in the future. In this chapter, we explore how planning policy in England shapes the strategies communities have to encourage sustainable, representative and equitable places. We begin by exploring how the UK net-zero policy enables responses to the climate and ecological emergency by charting notable recent legislative changes in this area and how these interface with the overall policy goals of localism as a tool to empower communities to influence the conditions of local development. We refer to some prominent debates on the role of development alternatives in planning theory as we start to unpack how these affect the politics of transition, that is, the relational structures and dynamics of planning and what implications this has when we seek to understand planning systems in general, and the English planning regime in particular.

5. Chapter 4. Frome: Crafting ‘Independent’ Identities in the ‘Home’ of Localism?

   Amy Burnett

   Abstract

   This chapter introduces our case study of the market town of Frome in Somerset, England and sets out to explain why the town is of particular import to the study of sustainability transitions. In the words of one respondent interviewed as part of this research journey, Frome benefits from a “burgeoning environmental cluster”. How this cluster came together and what binds it is important in order to understand the nature of the town’s environmental, relocalised initiatives and the organisations that support it, notably whether a heartfelt concern for the environment of some environmentally-minded individuals can be translated into the fabric of local government. Additionally, we explore how sustainability pursuits were framed under an 'independent banner' and what this reveals about the politics of transitions. We reflect on the musing by Peter Macfadyen, co-founder of Frome's independent group (the Independents for Frome, IfF) that has controlled the town council since 2011 has pondered, that it might be that green policy is more acceptable by local residents if it emanates from non-party-political 'Independent' councillors than 'green' politicians (such as members of the Green Party).

   Frome’s innovative mix of alternative governance arrangements, the strong links to the Transition (town) movement through the town's local Transition Initiative (Sustainable Frome), its radical (non-)party-political agenda, and the town council’s determination to encourage sustainable, relocalised development make it an extremely relevant case study to the study of sustainability transitions. We seek to reveal the tools, strategies and transition arenas that were employed by actors in Frome to agitate transitions towards alternative development models. In this chapter, we introduce some of IfF's objectives for radical action in the town and how this sought to draw upon and reinvent the role of an English market town into an emblem of the New Economy and local political innovation. We also begin to set the scene for how the promise of localism helped to frame and deliver on these goals and chart key developments in the town that underpin the events that we will discuss in more detail in the following chapters.

6. Chapter 5. Transition and the Origins of Relocalised Planning in Frome

   Amy Burnett

   Abstract

   The market town of Frome has a number of well-established groups with strong environmental and social objectives and there are a number of different entities that have played a key role in facilitating the town’s relocalised, independent identity which were summarised in the previous chapter along with key events that charted their success in the town. In this chapter, we explore how Frome acquired such agency to advance a relocalised agenda to understand the conditions that enabled some actors it the town to manifest certain ‘sustainable’ identities through the instruments of local government and its environmental active groups over time, and notably since the election of the non-party political group the Independents for Frome (IfF) to the town council in 2011.

7. Chapter 6. Transitions and the Niche–Regime Interface: The Politics of ‘Independence’

   Amy Burnett

   Abstract

   This chapter explores the reasons why neoliberalism has seemingly not eaten the town and various conditions that enabled relocalised political innovation in Frome. Here, we look deeper into how informal ties affect the politics of transition, that is, the types of relationships that were embedded within Frome’s relocalised placemaking networks (and were weaved through government spaces through representation of some of the town’s active changemakers in the town council, under the Independents for Frome, IfF). We explore how these ties helped to give rise to emergent ‘conditions’ (highlighted in bold) that allowed IfF and to consolidate power and pursue particular sustainability ambitions and development alternatives in the town.

8. Chapter 7. Using Planning as a Tool for Subversive Localism: Ambition Versus Rules in Localism Transition Arenas

   Amy Burnett

   Abstract

   Communities are exposed to both pressures on land and the built environment as well as opportunities to make places better. As we saw Chap. 3, the planning process covers various issues, ranging from where houses and employment sites are located, which community facilities are protected and enhanced, how they can be made more sustainable and support the environment, renewable energy or more accessible sustainable transport routes. These pressures—and opportunities—have led to an increasing interest among some environmental groups (notably Transition (town) Initiatives) in the relevance and importance of the planning process to formalise community-led, alternative development approaches, such as economic relocalisation, cohousing, self-build and ‘tiny homes’; thus, effectively galvanising them to act in increasingly political and institutional arrangements.

   This chapter outlines Frome’s development challenges and the relationship between relocalisation, planning and the development industry. Under the Independents for Frome (IfF), Frome Town Council (FTC) sought to use the rights made available under the Localism Act 2011 to address key development challenges they believed were threatening the town’s character and to fulfil a more ‘positive’ development model for the town, which one respondent described as “as a lever” for relocalised intentions. FTC was considered to be in a good position to capture the more “radical” potential of the localism agenda and support more resilient communities, drawing heavily on the ideas already cultivated on greener development within the local Transition Initiative, Sustainable Frome. We examine how Frome-based actors sought to respond to the opportunities afforded to them by the localism agenda to deliver locally-led solutions and the role of the Neighbourhood Planning (NDP) process in actualising mechanisms to do so and introduce the objectives, key actors and governance arrangements of Frome’s NDP. Again, as in the previous chapter, we use the notion of ‘conditions’ (in bold) to explore the key challenges, contestations and opportunities of localism to deliver innovative, or even more subversive, sustainable (relocalised) forms of development.

9. Chapter 8. Subversive Localism?

   Amy Burnett

   Abstract

   Thus far, we have explored how the group of independent town councillors, the Independents for Frome (IfF) cultivated their internal governance and worked with stakeholders to whet an appetite for development alternatives. This included using Frome’s Neighbourhood Plan to achieve to enable relocalised development using the powers of the Localism Act 2011. We now turn to examine whether localism can indeed be used for purposes (in the works of Flatpack Democracy’s founder, Peter Macfadyen) “not quite as it intended” and question what the conditions of using localism effectively are, particularly for more ‘subversive’ political and placemaking objectives - which is particularly pertinent for communities seeking to potentially replicate Frome’s approach to sustainable placemaking. We reveal the strategies - and challenges - of utilising certain rights under localism to enable community-led development and the crucial role that certain (qualified) intermediaries play in igniting the conditions for change.

   In Frome’s case, the longstanding development issue of a redundant large town centre site, Saxonvale, acted as a beacon of hope and the arena to contest alternative development models. The recent Mayday Saxonvale scheme is a comprehensive, innovative community-led masterplan, which includes proposals for the UK’s first ‘tiny homes’ community and has a community investment model linked to generating social value in the town. We explore the unusual battle of the Mayday scheme to fend off another set of proposals by a rival (mainstream) property developer that was endorsed by the former district council in a successful judicial review procedure (despite this ruling the alternative scheme is still not guaranteed, for reasons we discuss). We examine the role that localism played in underpinning these pathways, and that - while initially being sceptical of whether localism can deliver what it promised - without it, the conditions the Frome-led ‘Mayday Saxonavale’ scheme may have very different.

   This chapter highlights i) the importance of local capacities and those of their supporters (such as ‘strategic intermediaries’) to unlock protracted development challenges; ii) the importance of positive inter-governmental linkages where local authorities act positively to enable comprehensive development; and iii) the critical need for communities to own assets to influence the economics of development and investment in landholdings that otherwise might be preventing alternative, community-led schemes from taking root.

10. Chapter 9. Informality and Engagement in Community-Led Planning, Placemaking and Politics

    Amy Burnett

    Abstract

    In this chapter, we explore the informal relational ties that were essential in building one of Frome’s key environmental organisations that have championed relocalised development alternatives in the context of the wider Transition and New Economy movement, Sustainable Frome. We ascertain how these ties played out in more formal governance of engaging in the neighbourhood plan but also the role of informal and affective ties in influencing the structures of community participation and wider issues of apathy and civic engagement at a broader scale. As before, we start by highlighting the key takeaways from an analysis of placemaking in Frome and unpacking what this means—for the town, the issue of ownership and inclusion, and scaling up participatory innovations.

11. Chapter 10. Placemaking Transitions in Frome: Consequences of Independence and Relocalisation on Transformative Change

    Amy Burnett

    Abstract

    In this chapter, we take a deeper look at the strategic and emergent form of ‘transitions’ in the context of Frome’s environmental networks, namely those centring around Sustainable Frome, the local Transition (town) Initiative and its relationship to broader shifts in the environmental movement landscape with the presence of Extinction Rebellion (XR). We look at what has transitioned— such as role transitions (stepping up, walking away or coming to a crossroads within one’s roles at an individual or an organisational level), or where attempted changes didn’t yield a shift towards relocalised outcomes because of their relation to other driving forces. Here we assess the consequences of the occupation of the state by protagonists in the form of niche-directed transitions and the intended and unintended effects on local placemaking dynamics. We compare such shifts within the environmental movement landscape using the New Economy ‘tribes’ defined by the Real Economy Lab (2016) (Transition and Relocalisation) with those between tiers of government and broader (independent) political agendas (the New Economy tribe Government and Politics, explore more fully in the next chapter).

12. Chapter 11. Government and Politics: Changes to Representation in Political Transition Arenas

    Amy Burnett

    Abstract

    This chapter takes a deeper look into transitions relating to our second New Economy ‘tribe’ under investigation, Government and Politics. Government structures and representation are critical to understanding the underlying architecture of transition arenas. They deeply affect the emergent conditions of political innovation and the potential to scale up and amplify development alternatives (e.g., setting planning policy, the localism policy agenda or who is elected to be a voice of particular visions of development). Having assessed the consequences of the Independents for Frome (IfF) on local placemaking transitions and community-led planning ambitions when the independent group took control of Frome Town Council (FTC) in 2011, we now reflect on how the phenomenon of ‘indy-politics’ is being consolidated, scaled up and scaled out and the challenges faced in doing so.

    Split into two parts, we examine how government systems and independent politics structure transition arenas that intersect with relocalised intent and an appetite for ‘progressive’ change. In part one, we examine the changing governance structure of local government in Somerset and what this means for the broader local government architecture that supports local councils and the communities they serve. This includes new arenas for participation and the challenge of resourcing service delivery in the wake of some local authorities effectively declaring themselves bankrupt, or close to being so. In part two, we examine the politics of being ‘independent’ and the co-option of indy identities by party political candidates and the crowding out of party political representation at the level of the town council. We also reflect on the progress made in scaling up the Flatpack Democracy movement which centres around IfF’s radical politics and the role of Extinction Rebellion (XR) in playing an increasing role in co-opting the ideas of ‘Flatpackery’ into a broader social movement agenda for democratising climate and ecological responses.

13. Chapter 12. Conclusion: Towards Regenerative Development in an Era of Uncertainty?

    Amy Burnett

    Abstract

    How we can shape truly ‘sustainable’ development is a key question for our time. Yet the challenge of how to live sustainably is imbued within a myriad of pathways and competing alternatives. At a practical level, some actors favour tweaks to the existing market economy, whilst others seek more radical, or transformative, solutions. Now more than ever we require a robust framework to guide and critique the type of world we are ‘transitioning’ towards. Brexit and the desire to ‘take back control’, the changing landscape of environmental movement, the move towards unitary local governance, rapid technological change, COVID-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and climate change are all contemporary drivers on the conditions underlying placemaking and innovative political experimentation. This book set out to investigate the scope for implementing New Economy transitions through mainstream institutions or initiatives at the local scale through a multi-level account of transition dynamics. Here, we conclude how we can navigate these interacting and complex drivers to create the mechanisms to forge more inclusive and innovative placemaking and alternative development models that challenge business-as-usual practices and thinking. In particular, how local politics in the innovative case study of Frome reveals the relationship between placemaking networks, politics and planning in enabling (or frustrating) more radical (subversive) forms of sustainable placemaking.

14. Backmatter