Creating planning visions for fragmented post-socialist city-regions

ABSTRACT

The post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have been largely sidelined during the mainstream international debate on city-regional (or metropolitan) planning and governance. As the formal institutionalization of city-regions in CEE is relatively weak, the voluntary bottom-up approach to city-regional visioning is the only alternative. Through the empirical analysis of the experience of the Poznań city-region in Poland, based on face-to-face interviews with policymakers and a study of planning documents, the paper discovers the political relations of power behind the consensus-based strategic visioning and limitations of a voluntary approach when confronted with long-lasting local development policies embedded within the formal planning system.

KEYWORDS:

• bottom-up approach
• voluntary cooperation
• metropolitan governance
• post-socialist transition
• Poznań Metropolis
• quadruple helix

JEL:

• O21
• R52
• R58

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The approval index was based on the level of the interviewee’s positive identification with the following attitudes: (1) a recognition of presence in the Poznań Metropolis as beneficial for the municipality; (2) a recognition of the coordination of spatial planning on the metropolitan scale as beneficial for the municipality; (3) an acceptance of the potential limitations of planning authority for the municipality resulting from the implementation of the city-regional vision; (4) a positive experience of the application of the city-regional vision in the municipality; and (5) a readiness to accept the strengthening of competences of the city-regional level in the field of spatial planning. The grades in each individual category could range between (−1, 1), and the aggregate value of the index is in the range of (−5, 5).

2. The adaptation index was constructed on the basis of the following criteria: (1) references to the city-regional vision in the draft municipal master plan (full official name: the study of conditions and directions of spatial development); (2) a demographic forecast compatible with the city-regional methodology; (3) an alignment of demand for housing with the city-regional targets; (4) designating residential areas along with vision guidelines; and (5) designating commercial and industrial areas along with vision guidelines. The grades in each individual category could range between (−1, 1) and the aggregate value of the index is in the range of (−5, 5).

Additional information

Funding

The research was funded by the National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki), Poland [project number 2016/23/D/HS5/00202].