This paper discusses spatial planning discourses and individuals’ planning agency in relation to planning challenges within their legal, regulatory and policy context. While addressing national and international pertinent issues, fieldwork was conducted in the West Midlands, England to gain insights into the interpretations of planning policy and actual planning practices, especially the tensions and potential conflicts within and between environmental and economic interpretations and interests. The motivation for the research is to elicit the scope and extent of (eco-)systems-based thinking in urban development practices and related decision-making processes (and conversely what clouds and hinders this). Research questions include: (1) What are the current environmental governance and urban planning discourses? (2) What worldviews/meanings can be observed in the making, interpretation and application of planning policies; with specific attention to the extent of ‘dualism’ being evident (e.g. human–nature; rural–urban; social–economic)? (3) What priorities and actions are suggested to improve (and achieve strong) sustainability in the West Midlands? (4) How can planning more effectively address complex development challenges? A mixed methods approach is used including policy analysis, interviews and Q-methodology with 39 participants, to identify and analyse different perspectives of actors involved in spatial planning processes and perceived opportunities and capacity to generate environmental, social and economic sustainability. The research is currently still in progress and by the time of the conference key parts completed; therefore, findings from across the different methods ready to be shared.