European spatial planning

Debates around how to deal with increasing inequalities gained significant importance following the 2007 global financial crisis. This is the case not only for personal inequalities, but also for regional inequalities. Indeed, recent electoral outcomes, such as Brexit referendum and the emergence of right-wing nationalism throughout Europe, have shown that regional inequalities might be more important than scholars and policy-makers thought (Rodriguez-Pose, 2018). As such, there should be no surprise that the issues of lagging regions and how to deal with them have risen to prominence in regional studies. Lagging regions are sometimes labelled "places that do not matter" and their electoral behaviour in favour of populists is interpreted as a sort of revenge for being left behind over long periods of time (Rodriguez-Pose, 2018), or as a "rebellion of the globalisation's losers" (Davoudi, 2019). Moreover, Davoudi (2019) argues that we are not only dealing with places "left behind", but also "kept behind", by "neglect, lack of investment and misguided policies stemming from the long-term neo-liberal obsession with aggregate growth, big city boosterism and trickle down effects". The author, therefore, calls for re-imagining European cohesion policy, and she is not the only scholar stating this. Iammarino et al. (2017) also call for re-imagining cohesion policies, arguing for a place-sensitive approach, a new concept that asks for policies that take into consideration the context, and not only the local one, but also the context exterior to local conditions. In both cases, as in many others, one can notice a shift from place-neutral or even-place-based approaches to place-sensitive and more systemic approaches to dealing with lagging regions. Against this background, the edited volume of Lang and Görmar argues that one should regard regional inequalities in a broader perspective, taking into consideration not only differences between central and peripheral places, the performance of lagging regions per se, or the "catch-up" perspective, but to look instead at the core-periphery relations and its subsequent processes: polarisation, centralisation and peripheralisation. The book starts with the assumption that polarisation is an ongoing process that is happening in a threefold manner within the EU: demographically, economically, and even electoral. The authors are searching * Mihail EVA is assistant lecturer at the "Alexandru

The paper provides a theoretical contribution to the multi-level governance debate, discussing the role of the policy instruments in tailoring polities for local development strategies. To this purpose, it examines the Community-Led Local Development (CLLD), a policy tool of the EU Cohesion Policy 2014-2020, which has generated more than 3.000 local initiatives across the EU. An institutionalist perspective enables a reflection on the multi-level normative dimensions of these local initiatives. A combination of the post-functionalist governance theory, the soft space debate, state-theory and strategic-relational approach provides an interpretative framework to be deployed for a dedicated research agenda. The interpretative challenge is about whether the CLLD enables spatial-temporal fixes in which a deliberative polity pursues a spatial imaginary for an ad-hoc territory. The consequent analytical dimensions can be found in: a) the relationship between attendant ad-hoc polity, policy agenda, territorial design and societal processes; and b) the meta-governance dimensions that locate the bottom-up constituency of this institutional technology in the shadow of state’s hierarchy. An overview of the CLLD implementation across the EU provides evidences on the latter.

This brief note describing the spatial planning environment at the City of Warsaw is prepared  in order
to explain the basic spatial planning regulations and procurements which are crucial for any
(re)development  intended to be implemented in Warsaw.

This paper describes the way the Polish spatial planning system has been changing during (and along) the transition of Polish State from a centrally planned “Soviet-shaped” economy  of the “Communist era” to a “Western-oriented” market economy, in years 1989 – 2013.

This special issue of Urban Planning seeks to contribute to and extend the debate regarding the application of Lefebvre’s ideas to the current challenges and opportunities of urban planning. Papers can cover a range of issues e.g.: governance, urban design, urban regeneration, environmental management, community participation, housing, policy making and evaluation, local/strategic planning, infrastructure, international planning, neoliberal urbanism, smart cities, land hunger, urbanisation, gentrification, urban poverty/inequality, the right to the city, new towns/cities, planning history, city management and the law.
We welcome papers that present: new empirical research, critical reviews of current issues, theoretical discussions and developments and demonstrate a critical engagement with Lefebvre’s ideas and arguments.

ABSTRACT The hypothesis of our research project in comparative urban development is that while large infrastructure projects impact the local economy, labour markets and the environment, the interactive response and linkages of the players may cancel benefits ...

According to this perspective in this article, I will try to describe the idea of museum as a space of flows. The idea is related to a new concept of space determined by the increasing role of digital networks (Castells, 1996, 2004) on institutional communication processes, on one hand, ...

Abstract The creation of devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, coupled with the proposals for the English regions are creating new operational environments for local government in different parts of the UK. This paper reviews both the key factors affecting these new environments and their relationship with local government. The paper assesses the factors influencing the context for change, and considers these comparatively within England, Scotland and Wales. Attention is focused on emerging forms and practices of ...

Over the last 10 years, European Union interest in planning has increased significantly. Although land use planning remains a function of each member state, the legal obligations imposed by the EU in the fields of environmental law, structural funds, the Common Agricultural ...

In recent years, urban–rural relationships have attracted an increasing interest for more than just the issues they represent, ie the growing polarization of economic growth and the ever widening disparities between cities and the countryside. Another factor includes their ...

Nowadays, cities formulate long term strategies to address the challenges and opportunities they face. Numerous strategic plans or planning instruments are developed to this purpose. In this article we want to examine the role, impact and relevance of these types of plans in ...