TU Kaiserslautern

Post-Doc, International Planning Systems

Other Affiliations: Association Of European Schools Of Planning, Executive Committee
Politecnico di Torino, Inter-University Department of Territorial Studies and Planning

A. von Humboldt Post-Doc Research Fellow

Thesis Title: EU territorial governance and spatial planning domestic contexts. The role of territorial knowledge communities in promoting spatial planning policy shifts

About

Territorial governance and spatial planning have undergone a series of reforms over recent years in response to common challenges such as globalisation, sustainable development, demographic change. In Europe, these trends have been accentuated by the incremental consolidation of a complex framework for territorial governance, through which the EU has played a key role in the promotion of a ‘European spatial planning agenda’. While these process might be assumed to lead to some sort of convergence in spatial planning domestic contexts, various studies on the ‘Europeanisation’ of spatial planning show that impacts are felt in different ways and at different times, as a consequence of deeply embedded differences between EU nations in terms of political, professional and administrative cultures and structures. Within this process, a crucial role is played by networking and cooperation initiatives undertaken by different communities of actors. Following my interest for the evolution of the heterogeneous landscape for territorial governance in Europe, the overall aim of the research is to explore the complex interplay and mutual influences occurring between European spatial planning and the different territorial governance domestic contexts through the case studies of Germany, Italy and Poland. Particular attention is devoted to the way complex interplay of knowledge and policy development contributes to the evolution of spatial planning at the different territorial levels triggering processes of Europeanization. For each of the three countries, the research aims to explore the processes and forces of convergence being exerted in the framework of EU territorial governance, alongside the key factors that are potentially resisting such convergence. At the same time, it aims to appraise the processes through which the actors operating in the various domestic contexts influence the evolution of European spatial planning through their engagement in different territorial knowledge communities. Through the comparative approach at the basis of the research, a set of relevant considerations will be generated on new and evolving territorial development issues, planning ideas and approaches, actors, forms of engagement and arenas of action emerging within the heterogeneous landscape of EU territorial governance.

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