Planning doctrine as an element in planning history: the case of Cardiff

This paper sets out to illustrate the value of the notion of planning doctrine in urban planning history. Planning doctrine is a perspective within which planning issues are framed, and possibilities and solutions emerge; it includes ideas about appropriate spatial structure as well as appropriate mechanisms (public/private/and so on) for achieving change. The paper uses the idea of planning doctrine in discussing key strands in the history of planning in Cardiff, south Wales since the early twentieth century. It argues that the development of a planning doctrine provides a key to the pattern of Cardiff’s planning and connects the city’s planning to a broader national and regional context. Since the mid‐1950s a planning doctrine has clearly shaped the plans for the city. Moreover, doctrine has been nurtured, sustained and modified (but not renounced) as economic and political circumstances change because it has a valuable function in sustaining a broad socio‐political consensus in support of the main priorities and directions in the city’s planning.