2019 - AESOP Lecture Series 14, 15, 16 and 17

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16. Rethinking Planning in a More-than-human World
(AESOP, 2019) Hillier, Jean
Spatial planning is not external to the eco-social realities which co-produce the Anthropocene. I am concerned with spatial planning, its multispecies entanglements and the production of novel ecosystems, including those of damaged landscapes. Many planning systems reinforce hyper-separated categories of ‘nature’ and ‘culture’, reflected in the separation between landuse planning and environmental conservation planning. The ‘unreflected imposition of human primacy upon the desires and habits of other beings’ (Metzger, 2014: 210) and resulting asymmetric ‘negotiations’ between human planners and nonhuman others, have contributed to often-catastrophic changes across the globe. I argue that planning academics and practitioners should think carefully and critically about who speaks for (and with) the nonhuman in place making. I introduce the concept of ‘more-than-human’, as developed in geography and the environmental humanities, to explore new possibilities for productively rethinking the ontological exceptionalism of humans in planning theory and practice. I argue the need to develop inclusive, ethical relationships that can nurture possibilities for multispecies flourishing in diverse urban futures: a co-adaptive, more-than-human multispecies entanglement.