Abstract
This chapter reflects on the conditions, capacities and goals for innovative planning in depopulating rural areas. The first argument is that conditions and capacities for planning are place and context specific. The second argument concerns a broadened and context-sensitive interpretation of what planning capacity means. The final argument is that planning goals should differ between dense, expanding urban areas and those areas that have experienced long-term depopulation. Currently, most municipalities opt for a growth strategy. This chapter suggests that municipalities also should invest in plans for demographic adaptation. In conclusion, this chapter suggests that if the conditions for planning are recognised, the planning capacity is sensibly interpreted, and the goals of planning are reconsidered, more efficient planning strategies can emerge in depopulating rural areas.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Landsbygdsutvecklare på kommuner, regioner och länsstyrelser in the original.
References
Audirac, I. (2015). Shrinking cities in the fourth urban revolution? In K. Pallagst, T. Wiechmann, & C. Martinez-Fernandez (Eds.), Shrinking cities: International perspectives and policy implications (pp. 42–59). London and New York: Routledge.
Beetz, S., Huning, S., & Plieninger, T. (2008). Landscapes of peripherization in North-Eastern Germany’s countryside: New challenges for planning theory and practice. International Planning Studies, 13(4), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563470802518909
Beunen, R., Meijer, M., & De Vries, J. (2019). Planning strategies for dealing with population decline: Experiences from the Netherlands. Land Use Policy, 93, 104107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104107
Bjärstig, T., & Sandström, C. (2017). Public-private partnerships in a Swedish rural context: A policy tool for the authorities to achieve sustainable rural development? Journal of Rural Studies, 49, 58–68.
Bock, B. B. (2016). Rural marginalisation and the role of social innovation: A turn towards nexogenous development and rural reconnection. Sociologia Ruralis, 56(4), 552–573. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12119
Cloke, P. J., & Little, J. (1997). Contested countryside cultures: Otherness, marginalisation, and rurality. London: Routledge.
Cunningham-Sabot, E., Audirac, I., Fol, S., & Martinez-Fernandez, C. (2015). Theoretical approaches of “shrinking cities”. In K. Pallagst, T. Wiechmann, & C. Martinez-Fernandez (Eds.), Shrinking cities: International perspectives and policy implications. London and New York: Routledge.
Eder, J. (2019). Innovation in the periphery: A critical survey and research agenda. International Regional Science Review, 42(2), 119–146. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160017618764279
Friedmann, J. (1966). Planning as innovation: The Chilean case. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 32(4), 194–204.
Haartsen, T., Groote, P., & Huigen, P. P. P. (2003). Measuring age differentials in representations of rurality in the Netherlands. Journal of Rural Studies, 19(2), 245–252. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0743-0167(02)00045-1
Halfacree, K. H. (1993). Locality and social representation: Space, discourse and alternative definitions of the rural. Journal of Rural Studies, 9(1), 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/0743-0167(93)90003-3
Hollander, J. B. (2018). A research agenda for shrinking cities. Cheltenham and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
Hollander, J. B., & Németh, J. (2011). The bounds of smart decline: A foundational theory for planning shrinking cities. Housing Policy Debate, 21(3), 349–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2011.585164
Hospers, G., & Reverda, N. (2015). Managing population decline in Europe’s urban and rural areas. Cham: Springer International.
Hospers, G.-J. (2014). Policy responses to urban shrinkage: From growth thinking to civic engagement. European Planning Studies, 22(7), 1507–1523. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2013.793655
Jakobsen, M., & Kjaer, U. (2016). Political representation and geographical bias in amalgamated local governments. Local Government Studies, 42(2), 208–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2015.1127225
Kempenaar, A., van Lierop, M., Westerink, J., van der Valk, A., & van den Brink, A. (2016). Change of thought: Findings on planning for shrinkage from a regional design competition. Planning Practice & Research, 31(1), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2015.1088242
Lagendijk, A., & Lorentzen, A. (2007). Proximity, knowledge and innovation in peripheral regions: On the intersection between geographical and organizational proximity. European Planning Studies, 15(4), 457–466. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654310601133260
Liepins, R. (2000). New energies for an old idea: Reworking approaches to “community” in contemporary rural studies. Journal of Rural Studies, 16(1), 23–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0743-0167(99)00042-X
Mallach, A. (2017). What we talk about when we talk about shrinking cities: The ambiguity of discourse and policy response in the United States. Cities, 69, 109–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.01.008
Meijer, M., Diaz-Varela, E., & Cardín-Pedrosa, M. (2015). Planning practices in Galicia: How communities compensate for the lack of statutory planning using bottom up planning initiatives. Spanish Journal of Rural Development, VI(1–2), 65–80. https://doi.org/10.5261/2015.GEN1.08
Meijer, M., & Syssner, J. (2017). Getting ahead in depopulating areas: How linking social capital is used for informal planning practices in Sweden and the Netherlands. Journal of Rural Studies, 55, 59–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.07.014
Oliver, J. E. (2014). City size and civic involvement in metropolitan America. American Political Science Review, 94(2), 361–373. https://doi.org/10.2307/2586017
Ónega-López, F.-J., Puppim de Oliveira, J. A., & Crecente-Maseda, R. (2010). Planning innovations in land management and governance in fragmented rural areas: Two examples from Galicia (Spain). European Planning Studies, 18(5), 755–773. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654311003594067
Pallagst, K., Aber, J., Audirac, I., Cunningham-Sabot, E., Fol, S., Martinez-Fernandez, C., … Rich, J. (2009). The future of shrinking cities: Problems, patterns and strategies of urban transformation in a global context. Retrieved from Berkeley, http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7zz6s7bm
Pallagst, K., Fleschurz, R., & Said, S. (2017). What drives planning in a shrinking city? Tales from two German and two American cases. Town Planning Review, 88(1), 15–28. https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2017.3
Pallagst, K., Martinez-Fernandez, C., & Wiechmann, T. (2015). Introduction. In K. Pallagst, T. Wiechmann, & C. Martinez-Fernandez (Eds.), Shrinking cities: International perspectives and policy implications (pp. 3–13). London and New York: Routledge.
Rye, J. F. (2006). Heading for the cities? Gender and lifestyle patterns in rural youths’ residential preferences. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift—Norwegian Journal of Geography, 60(3), 199–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291950600889988
Schlappa, H. (2017). Co-producing the cities of tomorrow: Fostering collaborative action to tackle decline in Europe’s shrinking cities. European Urban and Regional Studies, 24(2), 162–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776415621962
Scott, M., Gallent, N., & Gkartzios, M. (2019). New horizons in rural planning. In M. Scott, N. Gallent, & M. Gkartzios (Eds.), The Routledge companion to rural planning. New York: Routledge.
Shearmur, R. (2015). Far from the madding crowd: Slow innovators, information value, and the geography of innovation. Growth and Change, 46(3), 424–442. https://doi.org/10.1111/grow.12097
Sousa, S., & Pinho, P. (2013). Planning for shrinkage: Paradox or paradigm. European Planning Studies, 23(1), 12–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2013.820082
Syssner, J. (2016). Planning for shrinkage: Policy implications of demographic decline. Journal of Depopulation and Rural Development Studies, 20, 7–31. https://doi.org/10.4422/ager.2015.14
Syssner, J. (2018). Mindre många. Årsta: Dokument Press.
Syssner, J. (2020). Pathways to demographic adaptation: Perspectives on policy and planning in depopulating areas in Northern Europe. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Syssner, J., & Meijer, M. (2017). Informal planning in depopulating rural areas. A resource-based view on informal planning practices. European Countryside, 9(3), 15. https://doi.org/10.1515/euco-2017-0027
Syssner, J., & Olausson, A. (2016). Översiktsplanering i kommuner som krymper. Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift, 118(2), 221–245.
Van Assche, K., Beunen, R., & Duineveld, M. (2014). Evolutional governance theory: An introduction (Springer Briefs in Economics). Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing.
Van Assche, K., Hornidge, A. K., Schlüter, A., & Vaidianu, N. (2019). Governance and the coastal condition: Towards new modes of observation, adaptation and integration. Marine Policy, 112, 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.01.002
Vuin, A., Carson, D. A., Carson, D. B., & Garrett, J. (2016). The role of heritage tourism in attracting “active” in-migrants to “low amenity” rural areas. Rural Society, 25(2), 134–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/10371656.2016.1194324
Wiechmann, T. (2008). Planung und Adaption: Strategieentwicklung in Regionen, Organisationen und Netzwerken. Dortmund: Rohn-Klewe.
Willett, J., & Lang, T. (2018). Peripheralisation: A politics of place, affect, perception and representation. Sociologia Ruralis, 58(2), 258–275. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12161
Woods, M. (2005). Rural geography: Processes, responses and experiences in rural restructuring. London: SAGE Publications.
Woods, M. (2015). Conceptualizing rural areas in metropolitan society: A rural view workshop on rationalizing rural area classifications. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Acknowledgements
Parts of the research activities referred to in this chapter were financially supported by Interreg Central Baltic (Coast4Us, Project number 627).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Syssner, J., Meijer, M. (2020). Innovative Planning in Rural, Depopulating Areas: Conditions, Capacities and Goals. In: Hagen, A., Higdem, U. (eds) Innovation in Public Planning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46136-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46136-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-46135-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-46136-2
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)