ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the roots of strategic planning, its aims, logic and some critiques. Strategic planning is looked upon as 'self-conscious collective efforts to re-imagine a city, urban region or wider territory and to translate the result into priorities for area investment, conservation measures, strategic infrastructure investments and principles of land use regulation'. In strategic planning, the overall picture that inspires choices is not given by a comprehensive analysis, but rather by synthetic long-term visions. Strategic spatial planning, both in the short and the long term, focuses on results and implementation by framing decisions, actions and projects. City governments are lured to adopt an entrepreneurial style of planning in order to enhance competitiveness. As a result, planning faces major ontological and epistemological challenges. These may include the scope of planning, approaches, use of skills, resources, knowledge base and the involvement of a wider range of actors.
