Structure and Agency in Land and Property Development Processes : Some Ideas for Research Patsy Healey and Susan M . Barrett

Structure and Agency in Land and Property
Development Processes : Some Ideas for Research
Patsy Healey and Susan M . Barrett
Urban Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1, 1990 89-104


p.89
It is argued that while these approaches-institutional analysis,
neo-classical location theory and land economics, and Marxist economics-provide useful
directions for understanding the development process, they lack the capability to address a
fundamental dimension of our understanding of development processes . This is the relation
between the way actors behave in deploying resources to realise specific investments, with
which much of the real estate literature is concerned, and the broader processes which drive
the strategies and interests of the various actors involved .

The
role of landownership, the organisation of
the construction industry, the nature of the
finance invested in urban development
and the significance of intermediaries,
from developers to property consultants,
lie hidden or are given little more than a
passing reference in many historical accounts
of urban development,