Coping with collective interests in a self-organised planning regime: a critical analysis of the Oosterwold case (Almere, NL)

ABSTRACT

Self-organisation is a prominent concept in the field of urban studies, yet its application to planning practices is still minimal. In this regard, the Dutch Organic Development Strategies (ODS) stand out for being one of the few practical attempts to provide a legal framework for an incremental and open-ended urban development. Among the ODS, the Oosterwold case distinguishes itself for further exploring autonomy and decentralised decision-making. Few years following the project’s inception, a fieldwork analysis was intended to find a link between the self-organising processes that have taken place in Oosterwold, and their potential to cope with collective interests. The results have shown that stressing autonomy and incrementality undermined efficiency, feasibility, and compliance with the public interest. The case study analysis suggests that planners should not consider self-organisation as a goal per se and, when it comes to delivering collective infrastructures and services, self-governance, along with public support, might become necessary.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-organisation
• do-it-yourself
• organic development strategies
• Dutch planning
• collective interests

Acknowledgements

For their valuable inputs the author is grateful to the thesis’s supervisor and co-supervisor, respectively Raffaele Paloscia and Iacopo Zetti, as well as Edwin Buitelaar, Stefano Cozzolino, Gert De Roo, Elena Tarsi, Yolanda Sikking, Lilian Van Karneenbeek and the anonymous referees.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.mvrdv.nl/projects/32/almere-oosterwold

2 The forbidden activities regard commercial activities larger than 2000 m², intensive livestock farms, casinos, brothels and a few other exceptions.

3 All the information about the plot development process is dictated by the “Oosterwold Handbook” provided by the Almere municipality at the following website: https://handboek.maakoosterwold.nl/

Additional information

Funding

The work was mainly carried out at the University of Florence during the author’s doctoral research.