ABSTRACT
The political conditions for spatial planning in the Nordic countries are changing in multiple directions. This chapter investigates recent shifts and trajectories of change in spatial planning in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The focus is on the politics behind these recent shifts and the induced rescaling processes and modification of spatial planning instruments. The chapter provides at first a background on the so-called Nordic model, the different political-administrative structures in the Nordic countries and recent changes in regard to the political conditions for spatial planning. After that, we review the shifts in the spatial planning systems in the countries with a particular focus on the spatial planning instruments in the last 15 years. This is followed by a section in which we compare a number of further trajectories related to spatial planning. In the concluding discussion, we take up the post-political question in order to reflect upon to what extent we can identify signifiers towards either depoliticisation or even repoliticisation in regard to spatial planning in the Nordic countries.
