URBAN PLANNING AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE:

This paper argues that urban plans in many major cities throughout the world have become increasingly oriented towards promoting the city’s competitive advantage. Strategic land use plans during the 1990s have often been seen as tools to implement particular visions for the future of cities and linked to a particular rhetoric about economic change. A certain logic has been accepted in which economic globalisation is seen to lead to increased competition for investment between cities. The paper seeks to shows that this logic does not acknowledge the full complexity of the globalisation process and the debates it has generated. Through an examination of London, Sydney and Singapore the article shows how the strategies that have been prepared for these cities during the 1990s were geared towards enhancing their ‘world city ’ status. It is argued that this approach produced particular institutional arrangements and strong private sector influence. As a result the plans emphasised a particular economic approach oriented to inward investment. Alternative reactions to globalisation are not explored and environmental and social concerns neglected