Tensions in city-regional spatial planning: the challenge of interpreting layered institutional rules

Author(s)
Kaisa Granqvist, Alois Humer, Raine Mäntysalo
Abstract

The paper studies city-regional spatial planning from an institutional perspective. It applies theories of discursive institutionalism and gradual institutional change to analyse the dialectics of spatial planning and governance between discursively constructed city-regions and the pre-existing regional and local institutional territories. A strained dialectical relationship emerges when city-regional strategic spatial planning is instituted as a supplementary programmatic layer onto the existing strongly regulatory statutory planning, yet leaving intact its deeply institutionalized core-level meaning. Through the case study of the Kotka-Hamina city-region of Finland, the paper explores a situated city-regional attempt to overcome these tensions and generate policy-level change by blending the layered rules and reinterpreting their meaning.

Organisation(s)
Department of Geography and Regional Research
External organisation(s)
Aalto University, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)
Journal
Regional Studies
Volume
55
Pages
844-856
No. of pages
13
ISSN
0034-3404
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2019.1707791
Publication date
2021
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
507001 Applied geography
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General Environmental Science, General Social Sciences
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/6ca900ea-a94d-4304-a18e-72065f9dfee2