Galland EPS 2012 - VBN

1360 D. Galland
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forces seem to only account for recent shifts informed by studies undertaken at the level of
the city and city-region during short timeframes. In addition, current planning debates
appear to leave aside the combination of roles that spatial planning could potentially
assume.
In attempting to explore the different orientations that spatial planning adopts throughout
larger spatial and temporal frames, this paper takes on a multi-disciplinary approach
comprising three analytical stances—institutionalism, economic geography and political
science. In doing so, a framework is proposed by pulling together specific notions
drawn from planning theory (Healey et al., 1999; Albrechts et al., 2003), state spatial
theory (Brenner 2004, 2006) and discourse analysis (Hajer, 2003), and the interplay that
several of their variables exhibit with regards to how and why spatial planning evolves.
By delving into the case of national planning policy in Denmark, the aim of the paper
is therefore to address the different roles that spatial planning has taken up as a result
of its several development reorientations since the 1960s.
The first section of the paper provides a general overview regarding the traditional role
of spatial planning in European countries. It then moves on to discuss the changing character
and emerging roles of spatial planning. Secondly, the paper describes the main mechanisms
and factors that comprise the above-mentioned multi-disciplinary framework. The
third section presents an in-depth analysis concerned with the evolution of national planning
policy in Denmark from its origins until the most recent shifts. It addresses the condition
and shifting orientations of national planning reports, legislation and other spatially
relevant policy during the past 50 years. Based on these three sections, the paper proceeds
to qualify, illustrate and synthesize the diverse roles that spatial planning seems to have
adopted in Denmark throughout that period. Finally, the paper offers some concluding
remarks.
Spatial Planning Systems and Policies Under Change
Steering: The Traditional Role of Spatial Planning
Several planning systems in Europe, particularly those in the Nordic countries, have been
traditionally organized via formal and hierarchical top-down structures wherein national
policies have been meant to guide lower territorial scales (CEC, 1997). As a result, the traditional
role of spatial planning at the national level in such contexts has been to guide
spatial development by means of policy instruments throughout different tiers of government
wherein planning practice is undertaken. As a policy tool, then, national spatial planning
aimed at allocating public sector investment and social welfare resources between
regions (CEC, 1997, 1999).
These hierarchical arrangements and the traditional function of national planning can be
portrayed as an outcome of post-war welfarist models, where the public sector was meant
to “...undertake, manage and regulate development in line with a generalized and unitary
conception of the ‘public interest’ (and) ...acted as a ‘provider’ of a coordinated stable
framework for the making of development investment decisions, as well as a provider of
serviced land and development” (Healey et al., 1997, p. 11). In Denmark, planning mechanisms
as depicted until recently seemed to resonate with such systematic attributes.
In practice, this was carried out through a planning system based on the principle of