Strategic Spatial Planning: Responding to Diverse Territorial Development Challenges: Towards an Inductive Comparative Approach

Abstract

The concept of strategic spatial planning has come to represent a particular concern to broaden the scope and enhance the governance capacity of spatial policy and practice in a European context. It is increasingly evident, however, that the concept represents a diversity of multifaceted and fragmented practices, confounding assumed narratives of Europeanization and policy convergence. This article seeks to move towards a context-sensitive, inductive understanding of spatial planning in a territorially diverse Europe. Emphasis is placed on the need for critical comparative studies to assess the capacity of spatial strategies in practice to respond to diverse territorial development challenges.

Notes

For pragmatic reasons, the focus here is on a comparison of the German and English debates on strategic spatial planning. See, for example, Sartorio (2005) for a review of strategic planning from an Italian perspective.