ABSTRACT
This book is concerned with how narratives of place identity are constructed and contested in the context of spatial planning - i.e. through practice and participation. In this it inevitably touches on issues generally referred to as 'governance' - i.e. both systems of government and the social and cultural basis for these. This chapter evaluates the potential for building upon local initiatives which have used place identity as a focus, and the extent to which elements of these local discourses have been adopted or have influenced local authority planning as a result. It is based on research in two case studies in the NoordXXI project, the kommunes of Tidaholm and Falkoping, located within the Vastra Gotaland region in the south west of Sweden.
