Retail Development in The Netherlands: Evaluating the Effects of Radical Changes in Planning Policy

After long years of a protective national retail planning policy, the Dutch national government decided in 2004 on a radical shift with respect to this policy, by abolishing restrictive retail regulations. The provinces have recently responded by reinstalling the main elements of the national retail planning model at the regional level. This article shows that nevertheless unintended structural changes in the Dutch retail landscape have occurred. Building on theoretical perspectives on institutional change and normative approaches to planning, the article evaluates the rationale behind the shifts in the planning regime and the extent to which the “new” planning regime meets the conditions for a collaborative planning approach. Additionally, regional differences in the effectiveness of retail planning are analysed and related to regional differences in the planning regime.     

Planning the compact city: The randstad Holland experience

All over the world compact urban development is a topic of debate. However, practitioners and academics in many countries seem slow to synthesize suitable policies. Therefore, in this paper 30 years of experience with compact urban development is projected against the backdrop of the international discussion on this issue. The Dutch experience confirms the legitimacy of many arguments and findings presented in the international literature. Yet, Dutch practices put the policy's success into perspective. It appears to be less successful when related to mobility effects and the spatial consequences of urban growth. The relative success of compact urban development was mainly owing to the specific conditions under which the policy was implemented. As these conditions are now changing, it remains to be seen whether this policy will be seriously jeopardized. In the event that planners elsewhere pursue compact urban development within their territory, cognizance of the Dutch experience may help them to shape their policies to achieve their full potential.     

Empowerment Planning in Regional Development

In the planning literature, there is a tendency to contradict top-down and bottom-up policies, government and governance and instrumental and communicative planning. However, through extensive action research in regional development practice, we have learnt that there is a need for combining them in adequate planning models, and we have found strong arguments in philosophy and theory for this combination when we go to the debate on modernization and the arguments in favour of better balance between communicative and instrumental rationalities. This article is a theoretical discussion of a planning model that we have called empowerment planning. In this discussion, we regard empowerment in regional development as a combination of top-down and bottom-up processes with the variables context, mobilization, organization, implementation and learning. Planning is regarded as a combination of instrumental and communicative rationalities in an institution-building process based on Habermas' will-forming process with different discourses. We present how a planning approach with institutional, strategic, tactical and operative levels of planning can stimulate different development variables, contribute to the institution-building process and strengthen the legitimacy of the planning institution.     

Challenges to Democracy in Market-Oriented Urban Planning in Norway

Neo-liberal ideas have resulted in a planning practice characterized by an informal phase in which early agreements are reached in closed negotiations between municipal planners and private developers. This challenges norms of legitimacy and accountability found in traditional democratic theories, as well as deliberative planning and network governance theories. Input-based legitimacy may be weakened by the lack of participation as well as by asymmetry in resources available for participation (voice). The representative democracy's (vote) responsiveness to the electorate may be weakened due to the lack of knowledge of the views of those affected, early lock-in to agreements and weak meta-governance due to the lack of adherence to overall plans. Throughput legitimacy is reduced by the lack of transparency, and thus accountability, in the informal phase. Output legitimacy might justify the privileged position of developers if tangible results are achieved. However, lack of participation weakens the quality and long-term lastingness of decisions, and lack of deliberation weakens the acceptability of justifications for those burdened by the decisions. We argue that two different types of reforms are necessary to increase the input legitimacy of planning practices: representative democracy reforms that strengthen the role of politicians and reforms that strengthen the direct participation of stakeholders in planning.     

Planning and the National Assembly for Wales: Generating Distinctiveness and Inclusiveness in a New Political Context

The creation of the National Assembly for Wales in May 1999 was part of a series of constitutional reforms in the UK initiated by the Labour Government after 1997. The Assembly, that has been awarded policy-making powers only, is still in its infancy, and any assessment of the perceived success of the new forum would be premature. Nevertheless, there are signs emerging that could give rise to the view that the Assembly will carve out a degree of distinctiveness in its approach to governance and substantive policy areas compared to that operating in England generally, and to the land use planning system in particular. This review paper charts the birth of the National Assembly for Wales, outlines its responsibilities and functions in relation to planning, and assesses what has happened 'on the ground' in its first 18 months. Overall, the paper portrays politicians and officials in the new governance framework searching for distinctiveness, inclusiveness and policy ownership; the task is to offer something different compared both to the system existing previously and to the on-going processes of institutional restructuring underway in other parts of the UK. It situates planning within the crucible of decentralization and devolution, since planning has been awarded a central facilitating role within the governance and restructuring process as part of the Welsh Cabinet's determination to deliver sustainable development in the twenty-first century.     

The Difference Context Makes: Planning and Ethnic Minorities in Northern Ireland

The ways the British planning system fosters racial disadvantage and the initiatives taken by local authorities to address such bias have been subject to a number of studies over the last 17 years. This body of research has revealed isolated examples of progressive professional practice within a general pattern of inaction and ignorance. This paper looks at how the needs of ethnic minorities have been accommodated by the planning system in Northern Ireland that has a very different institutional and political context than other parts of the UK. The nature of 'race' relations in Northern Ireland is examined and the concept of 'policy processes' is used to explain why ethnic minorities in the region face similar difficulties to those in Britain. The influence of the political and cultural context is shown to play a key role in framing the policy processes that shape patterns of discrimination. The paper suggests that a full understanding of this context is required if multiculturalism is to be fully accommodated by planning in Europe.     

Planning for Climate Change Adaptation in a Multi-level Context: The Gothenburg Metropolitan Area

Individual local governments are key players in Sweden's strategy for climate adaptation but their authority does not match the scale of climate change and its impacts. Competences are divided among local, regional and national authorities. Climate adaptation thus requires cooperation, particularly in metropolitan regions. This raises issues of coordination, legitimacy and effectiveness of adaptation measures recommended in local Master Plans. The focus here is on how the 13 municipalities in the Gothenburg Metropolitan Area—expected to be the part of Sweden most affected by impacts of climate change—address and act upon issues of climate change adaptation within the framework of Sweden's Planning and Building Act, which places responsibility for the “common interest” of climate adaptation with local governments. Analysing municipal Master Plans, as well as the comments on these plans from the regional County Administrative Board and from Göteborg Region Association of Local Authorities, the inter-municipal association charged with infrastructural planning, I identify patterns in terms of coordination, legitimacy and effectiveness of planning for climate change adaptation. Results are discussed in relation to propositions from recent research on planning for climate adaptation in multi-level contexts.     

Informal institutional change in De Achterhoek region: from citizen initiatives to participatory governance

As in other European countries, the formal planning task of Dutch governments is subjected to devolution and austerity measures. Not only did these developments lead to outsourcing planning tasks to lower-level governments, also citizens are increasingly ‘invited’ to take responsibility for providing public facilities and services. In De Achterhoek, a Dutch region, these shifts are amplified due to population change and traditional active citizenship, and led to institutional change. Since a decade local governments stimulate citizen initiatives, under the umbrella of participatory governance. This process of institutional change did not alter formal institutions, but was the result of an informal and dialectic process between local governments and citizen organizations. In this paper, we will demonstrate the process of change and how it affected planning practices in De Achterhoek, building on theories of informal institutional change and its driving forces. The empirical part of this paper draws on the results of three focus group meetings, in which a diverse set of local stakeholders discussed the effects of change they observed and how it shaped planning practices. In the final section, we reflect on the degree of institutionalization, by examining the robustness and resilience of the observed change.     

The Construction of the League of Nations Secretariat. Formative Practices of Autonomy and Legitimacy in International Organizations

This article investigates the formative staffing practices of the League of Nations Secretariat. Drawing on the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu, it argues that core traits of the League's institutional capacity and identity was produced through the institutionalization of recruitment practices in the League's formative years from 1919 to 1923. Through an exploration of early negotiations and practices of staffing, we show how the League built and balanced legitimacy, by combining a clearly international make-up of the League Secretariat with acute sensitivity to state interests, and autonomy, by defending the Secretary-General's exclusive prerogative of staffing, in a way that has been defining for the trajectory of international organizations (IOs) until today. The article thus turns to the institutional landscape where the individual and its surroundings meet: through the daily staffing practices of the Secretariat, it explores how an institution came to be, function and assert its influence as an autonomous and legitimate diplomatic agent in a broader international field. As such, the article, as an innovative contribution to the field, argues that international historians should connect thorough institutional investigations with elements of the ‘cultural turn’ in International History, in order to properly engage with and understand IOs as diplomatic actors.     

On Spatial Planning and Marxism: Looking Back,Going Forward

The renewed interest in Marxism that occurred in social sciences and humanities after the 2008 economic crisis has not yet found its counterpart in spatial planning. This paper examines what Marxist planning theory and practices could mean in the current conjuncture. It does so through scrutinising (1) the vibrant Marxist discourse in planning that existed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, (2) the recent history (since the 1980s) of planning theory and its relation to the political economy, and (3) the current political economic context (not least defined by the diabolic crisis). Where previous Marxist approaches to planning were very strong on analysing the political economy, I argue there is currently a need—with old hegemonies losing ground, communicative approaches losing support, and neoliberalism in the political economy losing legitimacy—to also discuss establishing alternatives.     

The Double‐Edged Sword of Public‐Resource Dependence: The Impact of Public Resources on Autonomy and Legitimacy in Korean Cultural Nonprofit Organizations

As governments and nonprofit organizations build close partnerships for the provision of public services, they become interdependent in many ways. In particular, nonprofits' public‐resource dependence has significant implications for their behavior and decisions. By examining Korean cultural nonprofit organizations (CNPOs), this article posits a theoretical framework for the impact of public‐resource dependence on nonprofits' organizational autonomy and legitimacy. The empirical results of national survey data of Korean cultural nonprofits suggest that public‐resource dependence has a dual effect, reducing managerial autonomy while enhancing institutional legitimacy. Korean CNPOs seem to be constrained by public funding granted by both local governments and the central government, particularly in goal setting, resource allocations, and program choices. However, public funding also helps nonprofits earn institutional legitimacy through its reputation and recognition effects.     

Planning and the Culture of Governance: Local Institutions and Reform in France

Legislation introducing major reform of the French planning system is now 6 years old. It was intentionally seen as part of a trio of reforming statutes that linked spatial planning to institutional reform of local government. Taking as its starting point, the idea that planning is inevitably an embedded activity, it explores the relationship between institutional reform and the reform of planning in France generally, and then more specifically in the Région urbaine de Lyon. It concludes that the search for greater simplicity and clarity is not borne out by results on the ground. The French case demonstrates that the success or failure of planning reform is intimately linked to the nature of local government.     

Understanding the Reorientations and Roles of Spatial Planning: The Case of National Planning Policy in Denmark

Spatial planning commonly adopts a diversity of functions and logics in contributing to the handling of growth and development. Being influenced by an array of contextual driving forces that result in specific institutional practices and policy agendas, spatial planning seems to be constantly reoriented in terms of its purposes and reasoning. This article sets out to explore the diverse orientations and roles that spatial planning has assumed in Denmark over a 50-year period. In doing so, the article examines the evolution of national planning policy by means of a multi-disciplinary framework comprising analytical concepts drawn from planning theory, state spatial theory and discourse analysis. Based on an in-depth study, the article then attempts to qualify, illustrate and synthesize the diverse roles that spatial planning has assumed in Denmark throughout that timeframe. The article concludes that spatial planning initially assumed a steering role, which has been either supplemented or substituted by balancing and/or strategic roles over the course of the past two decades. As a whole, this case is thought to contribute to current discussions regarding how spatial planning is shaped in different parts of Europe.     

'Euroscepticism', Political Agendas and Spatial Planning: British National and Regional Planning Policy in Uncertain Times

Over the last 10 years, European Union interest in planning has increased significantly. Although land use planning remains a function of each member state, the legal obligations imposed by the EU in the fields of environmental law, structural funds, the Common Agricultural Policy, and Trans-European Transport Networks, have all impacted upon the context of the operation of the British planning process. Many of the EU initiatives have had to be transposed into domestic legislation, while others form an important-if oft-times uncertain-framework for British policy-makers. This paper examines the relationship between the European Union's policies and initiatives as they have potentially impacted upon the British planning system and the contents of Britain's national and regional planning policy guidance to local planning authorities in the assessment period 1988-1997. But the Conservative governments adopted a 'Eurosceptic' approach to their relations with Europe and, as demonstrated within this paper, also towards spatial planning issues that caused uncertainty in practice. The research indicates that although the EU has impacted upon British planning, particularly at the local level of government, this has not been reflected at the national and regional levels in planning policy documentation, mainly because of the 'Eurosceptic' attitude of the government. Policy-makers at both the national and regional levels in England, Scotland and Wales are now recognizing the need, however, to keep apace with changes occurring simultaneously with regard to enhanced European integration, and the approach of the Blair government since 1997 has re-focused the relationship between the EU and UK over spatial planning.     

Positioning European Spatial Planning

The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) is being described as 'inter-governmental'. The original initiative was for a Community spatial strategy for the delivery of the Structural Funds. Coming from France, it met with opposition. So it was that the successive six-monthly Presidencies of the EU took turns in managing the process. In truth, however, without Commission support the ESDP would not have come about. Now that the ESDP is on the books, the Commission is claiming a leadership role. Taking a position on this, one needs to view spatial planning against the backdrop of general thinking about European integration. Positions in the literature are often presented as polar opposites, like that of 'neo-functionalists' putting faith in integration on the one hand and that of 'realists' emphasizing the continuing dominance of nation states on the other hand. However, a growing body of literature is not about these 'grand theories', but about the actual workings of European institutions. It takes a middle ground and invokes concepts which planning writers are accustomed to, like networks, discourses and governance. From this literature it appears that mutual learning, a feature also of the ESDP process, is common in European integration. European spatial planning must be seen as part and parcel of an emergent system of European multi-level governance. In it, power is exerted at multiple levels of government. Denying the Community a spatial planning role is not realistic, therefore.     

Challenges to Riverine Planning in Australia

Australia's riverine resources have been statutoralty unrecognised and unprotected and as a consequence seriously degraded by land use practices in many regions since European settlement There is now an urgent need to modify and manage river systems for increasingly complex and diverse water requirements. This is not easy. A framework of important components in a river management system shows the muti-faceted and complex nature of the biophysical and institutional environment     

Indecision Factors when Planning for Land Use Change

The 'Law of Anticipated Reactions' and its two extensions are applied to the Portuguese planning context in the decision-making process of choosing where to locate a major airport. My argument contends the fact that uncertainty, associated with indecision, in locating major infrastructure hubs constrains individual actions according to governments' perceived powers (uncertainty of preferences and uncertainty of sanctions). The relevance of knowing how to cope with these indecision factors in the location of major transportation hubs is important to establish ' a priori ' actions that can forecast urban problems and timely implement appropriate planning strategies. The two Portuguese municipalities most often mentioned as the most probable locations for the airport are used as case studies to analyse and discuss how indecision factors have been affecting land use change. The data sources used for the two municipalities are land use change, census information and number of development requirements. The data is contrasted with urban and regional plans to verify if indeed indecision associated with the location of this major airport was an important factor in speeding up land consumption in both areas.     

Storytelling as Method in Spatial Planning

Abstract

Drawing on the case of the Wageningse Eng in the Netherlands, this paper considers the role of “storytelling” within spatial planning practices. It moves away, though, from seeing it as merely a model of spatial planning, where “storytelling” is sometimes used to justify planners' ideals for the landscape, or a model for spatial planning, which pushes for a normative use of “storytelling” as a means of encapsulating local knowledge and the views of those who live in, and use, the landscape. Rather, the paper engages “storytelling” as a method for revealing how formal planning practices may be destabilized by more vernacular narratives seeking to subvert dominant discourses and processes. In doing so, it seeks to not only show the contested nature of participatory planning within the Netherlands, but also the ways in which narratives—as revealed via such a method—construct specific positionalities with real implications for notions of inclusivity within planning practices.