ABSTRACT
In the complex context of today’s society, the role of governments, their policies and their use of tools like spatial planning have changed. Throughout Europe, changing social patterns in the economic, cultural and social domains, lead to changes in patterns of land use, growing mobility and need for infrastructure, spatial fragmentation of regions and urban milieus, changing preferences for the (design of) urban and rural landscapes (Jönsson, Tägil and Törnqvist, 2000). Statutory planning may often appear slow in reacting to these changes in many European countries and as a result the belief in spatial planning as a useful comprehensive instrument for solving the problems of society is eroding. Despite this, there are many examples of innovative forms of planning – in particular in regional contexts – which are trying to cope with this erosion, facing the mismatch between the content and nature of social issues at stake and the tiers of government (Salet, Thornley and Kreukels, 2003; Janssen-Jansen, 2004).
