| Summary: | In this thesis, a case study approach has been used to investigate the planning and implementation of urban development at local level in the periphery of Barcelona, Spain. From a review of existing literature on the case study research methods in the social sciences, certain guidelines for the research design emerged. A conceptual framework was first assembled, from which research hypotheses were derived, to act as a loose analytical framework within which case study findings could be considered. The conceptual framework incorporates a review of the planning, legislative and developmental backgrounds; and the nine postulated hypotheses concern three interrelated aspects of planning and implementation: planning and control mechanisms, agency roles and activities, and the decision-making process itself. The actual case study method focuses on the compilation, structuring and analysis of three case study 'data-bases', comprising on-file documentation, plans, photographs etc obtained from local planning authorities and development agencies. First-hand accounts from agency personnel were also taken into account in the interpretation of data. The thesis makes a contribution to knowledge in the subject area in two ways. First, the research findings break new ground as regards existing literature on the development process in Spain. The case studies, both individually and collectively, provide new inSights into how and why the planning system failed in its statutorily attributed planning and control functions at local level; and conceptualization and analysis of decision-making in the case studies provide new perspectives on the Spanish planning process. Second, the development and application of a case study research method to investigate the functioning, at local level, of one of Europe's lesser developed planning systems, provides scope for the subsequent adaptation and use of this method for the monitoring and exchange of urban management experience in different planning environments and the conduct of international comparative research.
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