Green infrastructure under pressure. A global narrative between regional vision and local implementation

This paper focuses on green infrastructure planning in three different regions, namely, the Ruhr in Germany, the Capital Region of Denmark and Greater Manchester in the UK. We investigate planning cultural research heuristics and propose a conceptual refinement of existing planning cultural research and approaches. We use framing and storytelling to show how societal beliefs and cultural assumptions are consolidated as spatial frameworks that guide planning practice. Theories of spatial governance describe how spatial frames are mediated, accepted and changed through institutionalized structures. We present arguments from urban design and implementation research to illustrate how planning ideas materialize. The empirical material presented in this paper shows how cultures of green infrastructure planning operate in diverse spatial contexts and that a dynamic perspective is useful for understanding how planning cultures develop and change over time.