Spatial planning and territorial governance in Southern Europe between economic crisis and austerity policies

authored by

Simone Tulumello, Giancarlo Cotella, Frank Othengrafen

Abstract

This article examines how spatial planning systems have changed in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece in times of economic recession and austerity politics, in amid pressures of external actors, and local conditions and traditions. We analyse the round of reforms of spatial planning and territorial governance implemented by national governments under pressures by European institutions, as well as local responses to them. On the one hand, we highlight how European institutions have used the conditionalities attached to bailout packages and other instrument of pressure to frame what can be considered an implicit Southern European spatial planning policy developed by the European Union. On the other, we suggest that Southern European planning amid crisis and austerity should be understood, together, as field that problematizes the idea of Europeanization of planning; a space used as ‘prototype’ for new rounds of neoliberalization; and a political space that continuously develops through top-down/bottom-up dialectic conflicts.

External Organisation(s)

Universidade de Lisboa
Politecnico di Torino (POLITO)
TU Dortmund University

Type

Article

Journal

International Planning Studies

Volume

25

Pages

72-87

No. of pages

16

ISSN

1356-3475

Publication date

2020

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development

Electronic version(s)

http://hdl.handle.net/10451/40583 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1080/13563475.2019.1701422 (Access: Closed)