ABSTRACT
Validating the indicators was the first step in operationalising the five dimensions of territorial governance. Yet the task remained how to trace territorial governance in the ten case studies that are presented in Part II of the book (see Chapters 6 to 15). We contend that territorial governance processes can only be truly understood by performing research using qualitative methods that involve tracing processes within a specific territorial context. If applied to an individual case this will provide a rich description and analysis of how territorial governance processes actually works within a setting and generate lessons from each specific case. However our challenge was to undertake a series of case studies from very different types of territories on a number of different levels – from the macro-regional to the neighbourhood level – which would provide both specific and comparable results. These could then lead to some generalised observations about territorial governance within Europe. This meant that we had to carefully construct a framework for analysis which could allow comparisons and syntheses from the ten various cases.
