Dutch and Australian Planning Regimes: Are They Ready to Face Extreme Climate Impacts?

In this study, Dutch and Australian planning regimes are examined to determine whether they are ready to face climate extremes. Five different “cultural” facets of spatial planning determine the differences between the two regimes. These planning characteristics are first confronted with current climate change. The Dutch planning regime performs better under these conditions than the Australian. Secondly, a suite of spatial scenarios is confronted with both current change and a changed risk landscape, in which climate extremes are introduced. Again, the performance of planning characteristics to deal with these new vulnerabilities is tested. For type-1 impacts, exaggerating current change, a limited number of Dutch planning characteristics still hold, where the majority of Australian planning properties is likely to lose functionality. Under type-2 impacts, surprising climate events, the Dutch approach is no longer sufficient, while some Australian characteristics suddenly imply opportunities. The sectored planning approach, together with culturally determined individual responses, might prove to offer solace, under the condition that dealing with extreme events is made priority. Overall, current regimes face difficulties in dealing with surprising climate events and a fundamentally different planning approach is required. Swarm Planning, which dynamically deals with uncertainty, is proposed as a beneficial new planning method.     

The Role of an Area-oriented Approach in Achieving Environmental Policy Integration in the Netherlands,and its Applicability in Bulgaria

An integrated approach to environmental policy and urban spatial planning has not yet been adopted by many local administrations in Europe. However, such integration is likely to provide a more streamlined planning process that incorporates environmental measures in the physical development of urban areas. In this paper, we argue that among many local governments there is already a growing wish to apply environmental policy integration (EPI) principles in spatial planning in an effort to achieve better quality of life in the cities and to preserve natural resources. Within Europe, most attempts to develop EPI approaches can be found in western countries, while efforts to find integrated approaches to the urban environment and spatial planning in Eastern Europe are in their infancy. The main reason for this is that most of the post-communist countries are still addressing the challenge of reconstructing their political, social, and economic systems. In this research, we analyse and compare policy practices for EPI in urban planning in the Netherlands and Bulgaria. We first discuss the Dutch area-oriented policy approach, which has gained popularity during the last decade as a means of integrating environmental qualities in urban land use plans. We then go on to analyse the effectiveness of specific area-oriented methods developed and applied in Rotterdam, and define their applicability in the planning practice of the local authorities of the city of Burgas in Bulgaria. The main conclusion of the study is that the degree of effectiveness of an area-oriented policy is dependent on the impact of specific success factors. Despite the differences between Rotterdam and Burgas in terms of the presence of these success factors, we assert that the area-oriented policy approach applied in Rotterdam can be transferable, and can be adapted to the specific local circumstances in Burgas and used as an instrument for integrating EPI into urban land use planning.     

High-tech development and spatial planning: comparing the Netherlands and Taiwan from an institutional perspective

High-tech development has been broadly accepted as a prominent matter of regional development policies and plans at the global level. Strategies to enhance it have evident implications for spatial planning policies, plans and visions. Consequently, careful attention should be paid to the role that spatial planning policies play in the national and regional efforts to advance high-tech development in a particular place. This study addresses the relationship between the spatial planning system and high-tech development, searching to explain the spatial implications resulting from this relationship. It approaches the topic by comparing high-tech development experiences in the Netherlands and Taiwan from an institutional perspective. Although both countries have used a range of spatial strategies for economic growth through high-tech development, the results show that their different institutional settings, power relations between different levels of government and conceptions of science park have led to the implementation of two very distinct spatial strategies, shaping different spatial patterns of high-tech development clustering in these two regions. The findings demonstrate the potential of the institutional approach to study international planning issues, and contribute to theories of high-tech development and spatial planning.     

Strategic Planning in Transition: Contested Rationalities and Spatial Logics in Twenty-First Century Danish Planning Experiments

In this article, we analyse how contested transitions in planning rationalities and spatial logics have shaped the processes and outputs of recent episodes of Danish “strategic spatial planning”. The practice of “strategic spatial planning” in Denmark has undergone a concerted reorientation in the recent years as a consequence of an emerging neoliberal agenda promoting a growth-oriented planning approach emphasizing a new spatial logic of growth centres in the major cities and urban regions. The analysis, of the three planning episodes, at different subnational scales, highlights how this new style of “strategic spatial planning” with its associated spatial logics is continuously challenged by a persistent regulatory, top-down rationality of “strategic spatial planning”, rooted in spatial Keynesianism, which has long characterized the Danish approach. The findings reveal the emergence of a particularly Danish approach, retaining strong regulatory aspects. However this approach does not sit easily within the current neoliberal political climate, raising concerns of an emerging crisis of “strategic spatial planning”.     

Cultural effects of authenticity: contested heritage practices in China

In this study, I analyse how the Chinese Government imposes the concept of authenticity on local heritage practices in the process of heritage nomination, conservation and management. Rather than discussing authenticity as an objective criterion, I approach authentication as a social process in the heritage discourse that impacts on local cultural practice. Through illustrating two cases in China, I propose three cultural effects of authentication on local heritage practices, namely spatial separation, emotional banishment and value shifting. Moreover, the heritage practices in China have created space for dynamic negotiations between local and global value systems. When the concept of authenticity is imposed on local heritage practices by heritage agencies, local communities are not passive recipients; rather, they consume, contest and negotiate the concept of authenticity in various ways.     

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.     

From Randstad to Deltametropolis: changing attitudes towards the scattered metropolis1

Although the Randstad planning concept is primarily known as a concept aiming to control urbanization, this article shows that world city ambitions have been inherent in the concept right from the beginning and that spatial planning for the Randstad over the past 50 years can also be seen as a prolonged attempt to give shape to these ambitions. Throughout much of this period it has proved politically impossible to turn these ambitions into concrete policies, although the recent turn to ‘Deltametropolis’ adds a rather interesting new chapter to this history. For the first time since its introduction, local and regional actors have themselves taken the initiative to frame and reframe the Randstad concept—by Dutch standards quite a remarkable sign of capacity building at the Randstad level. By spotlighting this particular dimension of the planning history of the Randstad this article touches upon some of the more notorious dilemmas planners may come across while pursuing world city ambitions for polynuclear urban regions.     

Contested Spaces? The Use of Place Concepts to Communicate Visions for Peri-Urban Areas

In Dutch planning, there has always been an important role for spatial concepts. Their role has arguably changed with the recent decentralization of planning to the regional and local level. At the national level, guiding concepts of a more procedural nature have replaced the more substantive and place-based spatial concepts, leaving more room for regional and local interpretation. At the regional and local level, spatial concepts are still in use, but this seems to be in a more communicative, negotiating and developing role than before. In this paper, we analyse how place concepts are used to exercise power, mobilize recourses and frame meaning over the use of the peri-urban areas, in the changing Dutch planning context. This paper focuses on two competing place concepts for overlapping green urban fringe areas in The Hague Region, which have been promoted by different actor constellations and which represent different visions about the meaning of these peri-urban areas. The case study allows conclusions about the changing role of spatial concepts in Dutch spatial planning.     

The Meaning of Heritage According to Connoisseurs,Rejecters and Take-it-or-leavers in Historic City Centres: two Dutch cities experienced

In various disciplines, a renewed attention to history and the past can be discerned, not least in the field of urban analysis and urban planning. To understand the ways in which heritage can contribute to the functioning of cities today and tomorrow we need insight into the meanings of heritage for the cities? residents.With the help of the two concepts ?tied to the city centre? and ?solidarity with the city centre?, three city-centre resident types are theoretically constructed who are the ?connoisseurs?, the ?take-it-or-leavers? and the ?rejecters?. The empirical data collected in two Dutch cities, Leeuwarden and Alkmaar, made it possible to search for these assumed types to see whether they really exist and to find out if the different types give different meanings to urban heritage. Differences in the meaning of heritage means that the distinctions among ?connoisseurs?, ?take-it-or-leavers? and ?rejecters? could be used in setting heritage policy.     

Importing and exporting spatial needs: A Dutch approach1

The increasing demand for space determines much of the approach to spatial planning in countries with a high population density like the Netherlands. In the next three decades more land will be needed for housing, work, traffic, leisure, nature and water. There is only one sector that will yield land: agriculture. The Dutch Minister of Spatial Planning has presented six intervention strategies to cope with the increasing demand for space: (1) priority setting; (2) export spatial needs; (3) reduce the need for space in accordance with policy; (4) intensify land use; (5) combine spatial needs; (6) transform spatial structures and buildings. Spatial planning in the Netherlands is becoming more and more geared to strategies 4, 5 and 6, which take the need for land as given. This paper seeks to explain that the first three strategies, and strategy 2 in particular, are also crucial for a country like the Netherlands, even though the policies associated with them would not generally be labelled spatial. For the spatial planner, however, the export of spatial needs is relevant as this determines the outcome of spatial planning to a large extent. This shall be illustrated by reporting on international residential migration, the use of leisure homes and second homes, international business migration and the restructuring of the agricultural sector. The Netherlands is not only exporting spatial needs, but also in the same time even imports needs at a larger scale, which puts spatial planning on a larger pressure. In the past the lack of space was solved by relinquishing land that was originally earmarked for water or nature. But the need for space for water and nature has increased recently and will continue to do so in the coming decades. This makes intervention strategy 2 even more relevant for the future. Spatial planners need to widen their horizons and include the import and export of spatial needs in their analyses.     

Entangled Memories: How to Study Europe’s Cultural Heritage

A fruitful direction for research on the European cultural heritage is to adopt a transnational approach. Rather than see cultural heritage as predominantly expressed in national contexts, it could be seen as primarily transnational and as plural. Such a view would also suggest a conception of national histories as themselves products of transnational encounters. In this perspective, the European dimension is not then necessarily something over and above nations, but part of their heritage. Moreover, as fundamentally transnational, the European heritage is not exclusively confined to Europe. Cultural heritage is not something that is fixed or based on an essence; it is produced and reinterpreted by social actors in different but overlapping contexts. This is also an interpretative approach that draws attention to the entangled nature of memories and especially the cultural logic by which new conceptions and narratives of heritage emerge from the encounter and entanglement of different memories. Such an approach offers new opportunities for comparative research on the European heritage as an entangled mosaic of histories and memories. This approach thus rejects not only particularistic but also universalistic ones such as alternative Eurocentric accounts.     

Regional environmental planning: Progress and possibilities in Western Europe

The challenge of environmental thinking is putting extreme stresses on the imagination and techniques of planners, at least in those European countries where ecological issues are being taken seriously. Generally, city or regional planners, and academics as well, are only at the beginning of a necessarily rapid learning curve. It is argued here that a spatial planning approach to guiding environmental change could usefully complement other sectoral or financial instruments, particularly if focused at regional levels. Important dimensions of different approaches are analyzed, including the political economic model, the degree of development and wealth (north‐south variation) and the institutional framework in each country. The progress made so far is examined in case studies of the Netherlands, England and Catalonia. It is suggested that some aspects of the Dutch approach could form a useful basis, if suitably adapted, for regional planning elsewhere. But, above all, much more fundamental thinking on the goals and means of desirable regional transitions will be necessary.     

The Innovation of the Italian Planning System: Actors,Path Dependencies,Cultural Contradictions and a Missing Epilogue

The paper aims at investigating the changes in the Italian planning system that took place in the last two decades. It is of interest because different directions of changes and combination of modes, tools and approaches have been developed and experimented. Such a plethora of changes however has been developed without a sound national reform capable to provide a legislative, disciplinary and cultural framework. At the same time, though, the condition of legislative immobility at the national level has characterized an unexpected experimenting ground for different actors and approaches at different administrative levels. In order to present its arguments, the paper combines an institutionalist approach with a strategic-relational perspective as starting point for the identification of the main interpretative categories for the processes of change. The modernization of the planning system can be investigated through its actors and the achieved innovations, its institutional path dependencies, as well as its cultural planning divergences. As a concluding consideration, we wonder if in occasion of the challenges that the ongoing socio-economic and institutional crisis has brought, the accumulated planning cultural capital can be the base ground for a new possible reforming season that would put order to a rich but scattered situation.     

A Methodology for Assessing the Heritage of Planned Urban Environments: An Australian Study of National Heritage Values

Although urban planning has made strategic and notable contributions to the production of the built environment, these are under‐represented in heritage discourse. Planned environments deserve more attention as a particular class of place because a better understanding of planning and planning excellence can inform best heritage practice. A stepwise methodology for the heritage assessment of planned environments is presented. It is drawn from an Australian study concerned with the identification of places of possible national heritage significance. The approach is constructed around the identification of historical themes (for the categorisation and benchmarking of places based on historical research), indicators (pertaining to the nature of significance in planning terms) and thresholds (pertaining to the degree of significance). The analytical approach is capable of adaptation to diverse settings in which the heritage contribution of planning may be recognised.     

Preserving Knowledge, not Objects: A Somali Perspective for Heritage Management and Archaeological Research

This article argues that the Somali people have a distinctive view on heritage and a different approach to its preservation relevant to their society. It suggests that a locally appropriate theoretical framework for heritage management and archaeological research can only be achieved if this local approach is taken into consideration and integrated into archaeological and heritage methodologies. The lack of qualified Somalis and indigenous perspectives in the archaeological research and heritage management policies characterizes Somali cultural heritage and archaeological research history. This research shows that previous approaches that have been pursued lacked dialogue and incorporation of local views of heritage practice. This lack of dialogue has been of paramount importance for the failure of the preservation of Somali cultural heritage, evident both in the previous neglect of its preservation and in the current looting and destruction of archaeological sites in Somaliland, Puntland and south-central Somalia. It is demonstrated how Somali indigenous perspectives are concurring and contributing to world heritage management and archaeological research methods. I suggest that any heritage work must integrate local approaches and trained local groups should lead archaeological research and heritage management in order to achieve sustainable development and self-representation.     

The Network Approach: Dutch Spatial Planning between Substratum and Infrastructure Networks

This paper investigates the substratum and infrastructure networks as relevant components of spatial planning. Since 2001, in Dutch government documents on spatial planning the Layers Approach has been presented, with three layers: substratum; networks; occupation patterns. The Layers Approach assumes that the characteristics of the substratum provide conditions for infrastructure networks and that these infrastructure networks then condition the occupation patterns, including the locations for housing, business activities and related services. These more or less hierarchical relationships are supposed to produce clear ground rules for the spatial planner. The Layers Approach seems to offer a robust methodology for spatial planning. This contribution presents the background of the Layers Approach, adds some critical notes and proposes an amendment: the Network Approach, connecting different spatial scales. After the presentation of a typology of networks a preliminary overview of the dynamics of transport networks is given. The spatial relevance of information and communication technology (ICT) networks, that support transport networks, is discussed. Nodes are presented as links between infrastructure networks and occupation patterns. The paper concludes that actors, dealing with regional spatial plans in a decentralized planning system, have to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the technology, economy and governance of current networks and the qualities of the substratum, which form a conditioning and stimulating framework for the spatial planning of urban and regional areas.     

Strategic Participatory Planning in Archaeological Management in Greece: The Philippi Management Plan for Nomination to UNESCO’s World Heritage List

Abstract

This paper examines appropriate conditions for effective strategic participatory planning in archaeological heritage management. It is suggested that heritage literature often considers the tangible outcome of strategic participatory planning, the management plan, as an end of the planning process in itself. Drawing from experience in drafting a management plan for the archaeological site of Philippi in Greece, conventional archaeological management in the country is discussed followed by the identi?cation of constraints on and bene?ts from strategic participatory planning. This paper argues that more critical approaches to the actual planning process are necessary for strategic participatory planning to continuously improve as an approach in Greece and elsewhere.     

Resilience unpacked – framing of ‘uncertainty’ and ‘adaptability’ in long-term flood risk management strategies for London and Rotterdam

Resilience is held as a promising concept to produce a paradigm shift from traditional flood control to an integration of flood risk management and spatial planning. Central ideas to the resilience narrative are that ‘nothing is certain except uncertainty itself’ and ‘adaptability’ is key to ‘governing the unknown’. However, this terminology is far from clear, yet increasingly used, which raises the question how it is made sense of in practice. To answer this question, we examine two long-term flood risk management strategies in the London and Rotterdam region with a policy framing perspective (i.e. the English Thames Estuary 2100 Plan and the Dutch Delta Programme). In both strategies, uncertainties are a key concern, leading to adaptive strategic plans. Reconstructing the framing processes shows that the English adopted a ‘scientific pragmatism’ frame and the Dutch a ‘joint fact-finding’ frame. While this led to different governance approaches, there are also striking parallels. Both cases use established methods such as scenario planning and monitoring to ‘manage’ uncertainties. Similarly to previous turns in flood risk management, the resilience narrative seems to be accommodated in a technical-rational way, resulting in policy strategies that are maintaining the status quo rather than bringing about a paradigm shift.     

Essentializing ‘Black Pete’: competing narratives surrounding the Sinterklaas tradition in the Netherlands

The Netherlands’ most important tradition, the celebration of the feast of Saint Nicholas, (Sinterklaas) has become subject to nation-wide contestation. As Dutch society has become more multicultural, partly due to the immigration from the former Dutch colonies in the West-Indies, new sensitivities have arisen about this institutionalised heritage practice. At the core of the controversy is the figure of Black Pete (Zwarte Piet), Saint Nicholas’ black-faced companion. Some communities within Dutch society perceive this figure as highly menacing and insulting. To the majority of the population, however, Zwarte Piet is an essential part of its heritage and identity. The ensuing controversy can be understood as a matter of heritage narratives conflicting. These narratives do not just give meaning to the tradition, but are also instrumentalized by actors in the debate to achieve their goals. They are used to justify or reject the appearance of Zwarte Piet, and to critically debate Dutch identity. In this article we reconstruct the Zwarte Piet narratives, and explain why these are so incommensurable. Naturally, we also pay attention to what is at stake for the activists on all sides.