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Abstract
Spatial concepts play a major role in planning practices all over the world. Some of them rise to the surface and then disappear, others remain thriving for a long time, becoming mobilized to shape politics, public policy and projects. By analysing two important spatial concepts in Dutch planning practice (mainport and corridor), this paper aims to explore the mobilizing capacities of new spatial concepts. The paper argues that the success of spatial concepts in the political arena depends on the interplay of two elements: (1) the concept's meaning, which effectively imagines the spatial challenge, and (2) the presence of a powerful coalition that uses this concept to name, frame and claim. The more meanings a concept accumulates, the more support it attracts. However, as this paper shows, this only holds if a major condition is being met: that the different meanings of the concept do not mutually conflict or contradict. This article presents a method by which to analyse the concept's meanings and to track conceptual changes.
Acknowledgements
This article is written in a personal capacity. It draws on the work of PhD research at the University of Amsterdam. The PhD was financially supported by a grant from the Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDst, University of Amsterdam), the Transport Planning Foundation (Stichting ter bevordering van de Verkeers- en Vervoersplanologie) and the Van Eesteren-Fluck & Van Lohuizen Foundation (the EFL Stichting).
Notes
1. This article is a selection from the work for a PhD. For the complete study see van Duinen (Citation2004).
2. The word “mainport” is a portmanteau word combining the two English terms “main” and “port”. It did not exist as such in the English language.