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Why Plan? Theory for Practitioners
Iain is a globally recognised scholar and contributor to national and international planning and practice; he has a public advocacy role that champions planning as a profession and has played a hugely influential part in the progression of understanding the relationship between planning theory and practice.
Iain has published texts on planning theory, the most recent being ‘Why Plan? Theory for Practitioners’ with Prof Graham Haughton (of the University of Manchester, UK) that looks set to become the key text used for education planning students internationally and a handy reference for practicing planners.
National recognition includes the Vice Chancellor’s Research Excellence award from the University of Waikato in 2020; Leading a planning research team on a $15.5m project with NIWA to produce NZ’s first ever national flood risk map to be made open source and freely available to practitioners and the public; and leading teams of researchers in the $40m National Science Challenge: Resilience to Natures Challenges.
Iain is a planner who is committed to engaging beyond the discipline to researchers, practitioners and communities to conduct planning in a way that generates real world impact and who never shrinks from speaking out on challenging and difficult planning issues. At the centre of it all lies his deep and formative understanding of the importance of planning theory and its relationship to practice.
