Fuzzy tales for hard blueprints: the selective coproduction of the Spatial Policy Plan for Flanders, Belgium

Author:

Boussauw Kobe1,Boelens Luuk2

Affiliation:

1. Department of Geography, Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium

2. Civil Engineering Department, Centre for Mobility and Spatial Planning, Ghent University, Vrijdagmarkt 10/301, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium

Abstract

Planners become increasingly aware that they operate in a fuzzy, fragmented, volatile, and unpredictable world. For a couple of decennia they have tried to find new answers in a communicative turn, in collaborative or in coproductive planning. However, because of the ongoing fragmentations and complexities, such attempts have shown to be so time-consuming, vague, or framed by the regular suspects of planning that they hardly meet today's major challenges. We will demonstrate this by means of the planning process for the forthcoming Spatial Policy Plan for Flanders, the successor of the Spatial Structure Plan for Flanders—a strategic plan on which the literature has extensively reported. In 1997 this latter plan was endorsed and accepted by most of the authorities concerned. More than fifteen years later, however, original commitments have eroded, and the ongoing process leading to the adoption of the new plan has failed to build broad support and credibility. Therefore, the new Spatial Policy Plan has turned to the promises of coproductive planning in order to include citizens and interest groups in the planning process. However, we will argue that in Flanders today this borrowed methodology of coproductive planning is insufficiently adapted to the Flemish context and is therefore mainly delivering an aura of optimism about sustainability to ongoing policies, while a variety of spatial developments that are recognized as very substantive or problematic are kept outside the process. To overcome this, we will finally discuss a preliminary design of a more contextualized process model, putting the stress on more concrete planning issues, involving independent stakeholders in strategic alliances, and taking a coevolutionary approach from the start.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Public Administration,Environmental Science (miscellaneous),Geography, Planning and Development

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3