PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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that the ESDP be not understood as a master plan!), however, remains problematic. Both
centrality and urbanity, as well as their complementary concepts peripherality and rurality
remain contested notions within the ESDP (Richardson and Jensen 2000; Copus 2001). 24
In the end, the greatest challenge is related to the fact that the storyline of
polycentricity entails very different visions at different levels of planning. 25
As Simin
Davoudi (2001a:2) concludes in her recent study on polycentricity in European spatial
planning: “Despite its widespread currency, the concept is not supported by clear
definition, robust theoretical framework and rigorous empirical analysis. Hence,
polycentricity means different things to different people.” Davoudi herself distinguishes
the use and adaptation of the concept at three different spatial scales: intra-urban, interurban,
and inter-regional. Which, however, is the most legitimate Pan-European
interpretation of polycentricity? This question still remains largely unresolved. Stefan
Krätke (2001:107) provides a basic definition of a polycentric system as a “system in
which a whole series of ‘high-ranking’ location centres exist side by side with a large
number of small and medium sized towns and cities,” and he finds that such a polycentric
urban system is “especially relevant in the pan-European perspective.” The difficulty,
however, as Krätke himself correctly asserts, is that “both polycentric and monocentric
24 Maps are conspicuously absent in the ESDP document, precisely because of their controversiality. In
particular, a map in the 1997 Noordwijk draft on “accessibility, infrastructure and transport” was removed
from the final draft because it was not strictly congruent with priorities indicated in the EU’s officially
agreed TEN network plans.
25 Note also the threefold definition of polycentric spatial development in the Study Programme on
European Spatial Planning, see SPESP (1999) and http://www.mcrit.com/spesp/SPESP_REPORT/
2.2.Summary.pdf):
The Concept of polycentricity has at least three meanings in the context of European spatial planning
and regional geography. At the scale of Europe as a whole (inter-regional), the possibility of developing
multiple dynamic growth zones across Europe, to challenge the tendencies for a strong core region to
which other part of the territory are peripheral. … At the scale of the territory (intra-regional), the
situation where there are multiple urban centers, often interconnected, rather than a single dominant
centre … At the scale of the urban agglomeration (intra-urban). This refers to the multiplicity of nodal