Galland EPS 2012 - VBN

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Understanding the Reorientations and Roles of Spatial Planning 1375 growing awareness of Greater Copenhagen’s significant economic decline and high unemployment rates. In sum, national spatial planning in the 1980s underwent a transition period that, to some extent, lacked a defined and consistent pattern. While the beginning of the 1980s saw the culmination of a long-term planning exercise that was carefully advanced for several decades, the end of the 1980s witnessed the rise of a competitiveness-based approach to engage in development. This shift signalled the possibility for spatial planning to adopt an entirely different role influenced by neoliberal thinking. Downloaded by [Daniel Galland] at 07:22 25 July 2012 The 1990s: Appropriate Development and Europeanization Spatial planning in Denmark underwent a drastic reorientation both in its contents and processes during the 1990s. By highlighting “integration” as its main keyword, the 1990 national planning report entitled “The contribution of planning to a better environment” signalled an imminent policy shift that emphasized the need to integrate environmental considerations into all decisions (Ministry of the Environment, 1991, p. 6). More notably, however, Danish national planning policy placed strong emphasis on the spatial restructuring of the country through the promotion of urban competitiveness with a European orientation. Based on the planning law reforms, a single Planning Act was amended by Parliament in 1991, which came into force in 1992 (CEC, 1999, p. 19). The strategic influence put forward by the 1989 national planning report can already be perceived in the Act’s first chapter: This Act especially aims towards: appropriate development in the whole country and in the individual counties and municipalities, based on overall planning and economic considerations .... (Ministry of the Environment, 1992) While the term “appropriate” can lead to rather ambiguous interpretations, the most obvious one can be easily inferred to match the liberalization and competitiveness agendas and tendencies in European urban planning at the time (Amin & Thrift, 1995; Healey et al., 1995; Newman & Thornley, 1996). Along these lines, the 1992 national planning report “Denmark towards the year 2018” introduced new spatial considerations based on promoting the Øresund region as the leading urban region in Scandinavia while positioning Copenhagen at centre stage under a European focus. In addition, there is a focus on placing other Danish cities “as a force for development” by linking them to international transport axes. In this sense, Denmark’s four largest cities were projected as urban regions with transnational relationships, while smaller urban regions were promoted as areas with specialized international potentials (Ministry of the Environment, 1992) (Figure 8). Based on the concept of national centre, the report suggests that networks between smaller cities and towns at the national and regional level can strengthen the competitiveness potential of Danish cities in Europe. This is a clear example of a former spatial concept being adapted to the new agenda for international development put forward by the government. The 1992 (national planning) report is the first example of urban networks introduced in spatial planning policy (...) where 3 or 4 cities of almost the same size
1376 D. Galland are trying to network and specialize under no hierarchy. So one might say that the new urban pattern is to adopt a more networked approach. (Nielsen, 2010a, Planner, Spatial Planning Department, Ministry of the Environment) The cities in Denmark should increasingly direct their attention towards Europe and consider their development potential in an international context. All of Denmark has a stake in striving towards simultaneous development in: Greater Copenhagen and the Øresund region, the international metropolis; the large cities in Denmark: the largest urban regions with substantial transnational relationships; and smaller urban regions with specialized international potential. (Ministry of the Environment, 1992, p. 26) Downloaded by [Daniel Galland] at 07:22 25 July 2012 The spatial structuring of Denmark in the future Europe depicted in this national planning report was thus characterized by market-oriented and polycentric growth agendas. This development reorientation was evocative of an entirely new way of understanding spatial planning as a whole. However, despite this emerging trend, important national regulatory measures were also implemented for the time being. For instance, a national Figure 8. Spatial development perspective in the 1992 national planning report “Denmark towards the year 2018” showing theDanishcities from an international perspective. Emphasis is placed on Copenhagen and the Øresund as the leading urban region in the Nordic countries (Ministry of Environment, 1992, p. 15).
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Page 7 and 8: 1364 D. Galland Table 1. Synthesis
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