Network complexity and imaginative power of the strategic planning of the space
This paper explores the imaginations of place and spatial organisation and of
governance mobilised in recent experiences of strategic spatial planning for urban
regions in Europe. Drawing on examples of such experiences, it examines how far
these imaginations reflect a relational understanding of spatial dynamics and of
governance processes. Spatial imaginations are assessed in terms of the nature of
the spatial consciousness expressed in a strategy, the way the multiple scales of
the social relations of a place are conceived, and the extent to which relational
complexity is understood and reflected in a strategy. Governance imaginations
are assessed in terms of how the relation between government and society is
imagined, how the tensions between functional/sectoral and territorial principles
of policy organisation are addressed, and what assumptions are made about the
nature and trajectory of transformative processes in governance dynamics. The
paper concludes that signs of a recognition of the «relational complexity» of urban
and regional dynamics and of territorially-focused governance processes can
be found in these experiences, but a relational understanding is weakly-developed
and often displaced by more traditional ways of seeing place/space and governance
process.