ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the scope of the study, the concept of conflict used, and some methodological aspects. It presents our understanding of public policymaking in Poland and the Netherlands concerning the management of conflicts in urban development at the local level. Although spatial conflict has been studied only little, it is quite evident that the increasing competition for the use of scarce land makes conflict management a major issue in urban and regional planning. The chapter discusses some methodological remarks concerning cross-national comparative studies, basic assumptions of the study, the research design, the selected cases, and the research methods. Interdependence means that the results of any actor’s activity are influenced by the actions of other relevant actors. Operationalising the theoretical-analytical framework helped the research-team to select case-studies, which could be expected to be feasible within the very limited research capacities.
