Sophie Elsmore

Sophie graduated with a first class honours in Geography from King’s College London in 2009, and was jointly awarded the Head of Department Prize. Her dissertation was nominated for the Royal Geographical Society Urban Geography Research Group undergraduate dissertation prize. She was awarded a 1+3 studentship by the Economic and Social Research Council to undertake her Masters and PhD research. She went on to gain an MSc in Cities from the Department of Geography, King’s College London in 2010. Her dissertation explored the practices of planning gain in the redevelopment of Paddington Waterside. From May to June 2013, she was a visiting scholar at the Centre for European Studies at Sciences Po, Paris. She has taught extensively during the PhD, and co-runs a third year module in Urban Governance and Regeneration. She is a member of the Royal Geographical Society Planning and Environment Research Group.

Sophie’s research explores the practices of planning gain in an era of section 106 agreements. The research explores how the state orchestrates itself in and through planning gain, and examines how the planning system is evolving and developing in the twenty-first century. Firstly, the research examines understandings of section 106 agreements with senior level actors operating in key organisations from planning, property development, housing and regeneration, at the national level in England, in order to provide an overview of how this mechanism has evolved in the 2000s. In so doing, it argues that the operation of section 106 agreements has failed to escape the historical legacy of betterment and compensation. Secondly, the research critically examines the practices of section 106 agreements in the London Borough of Southwark. The research argues that Southwark Council has crafted and constructed a series of institutional infrastructures as modes of governing for the operation of section 106 agreements. In so doing, these modes of governing can be understood to represent techniques of standardization, communication and engagement. The research also focuses on the role of property developers in the practices of section 106 agreements, and argues that we need to move away from crude economic characterization of developers, and instead pay attention to the political role of property developers. Thirdly, the research examines the implementation of section 106 agreements, and addresses their role as a tool of regeneration within the borough.