Richard Cowell G.I.N. Conference, Cardiff, July 2006 Managing stakeholders by orchestrating space: delivering wind power in Wales through spatial planning Richard Cowell G.I.N. Conference, Cardiff, July 2006

Discourses of ‘the planning problem’ streamlining + national direction + reduced scope for ‘local’ opposition greater community involvement + local empowerment

Detailed empirical investigation Spatial orchestration, in the sense of framing opportunity structures for influence across and between arenas of planning, and … how acceptable locations are constructed, and support for them maintained

Wind energy in Wales Rapid development in the 1990s Growing conflict ‘Planning is the problem’

800MW target plus seven ‘Strategic Search Areas’ Stakeholder collaboration Technical rationality Political authority Negotiated flexibility

Power as translation Responses to the draft guidance: much public and community group opposition, but qualified support from other sectors WAG’s responses to the responses: accommodating some industry demands for flexibility, but doing more to accommodate demands from planning authorities for tighter spatial control Actual decisions about plan policies and projects: …

Some conclusions Spatial planning facilitating larger developments Limitations of collaborative decision-making processes and influence of representative democracy Connecting institutional design to contextual conditions, political geography and the objects of policy