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Megaprojects are vehicles of change and spatial products of policies from near and far. In this paper, we demonstrate how insights from the policy mobility literature can contribute to a critical analysis of the legitimization of megaprojects. Through a study of the planning of a new ‘world-class' hospital in Stockholm, we show that ideas, experiences and practices from abroad played a decisive role in legitimizing this megaproject. Policies mobilized from elsewhere were strategically used to construct, modify and (re)present a legitimizing narrative centred on the aspiration of excellence and international competitiveness. This narrative emphasized the need to transform both the spatial structure and the organization of the studied welfare institution based on political and value-based rationalities. Initial international references and ideas were adopted in an unstructured and selective manner, but proved enduring throughout the extensive planning process and were eventually consolidated into a coherent concept, effectively excluding alternative development paths. The vague notion of ‘world-class' functioned as a ‘magic concept’ that strengthened this narrative, rendering the project difficult to criticize. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the importance of considering the temporal dimension of planning processes alongside the relational geographies of policy-mobility in megaproject analyses., Framtidens universitetssjukhus – beslut om Nya Karolinska Solna

Spatial planning instruments are fundamental for the operation of spatial planning systems. In the ESPON COMPASS project over 250 spatial planning instruments at different policy levels in 32 European countries were identified. In this chapter we compare and review these planning instruments that are used to mediate competition over the use of land, to allocate rights of development, to regulate change and to promote preferred spatial and urban form. The comparative analysis highlights that there are various types of spatial planning instruments at different policy levels many of which have multiple characteristics, that is, they are expected to have multiple functions in relation to spatial development and territorial governance practices. However, there is a significant consistency in how planning systems are hierarchically structured around spatial planning instruments and how these systems are based on rational ideals. Furthermore, the results indicates that there is a clear direction towards more strategic forms of spatial planning, also among statuary planning instruments. In conclusion, our survey reveals that spatial planning instruments are expected to serve as multi-purpose tools that simultaneously provide strategic frameworks and regulate spatial development whilst they have become less visionary.

Previous research has shown that the comprehensive-integrative planning model seems to be expedient for modernising planning systems, specifically regarding the relation between spatial planning and sectoral policies. However, contemporary, and particularly comparable studies are non-existent. Based on empirical findings from a European research project our comparative analysis explores whether spatial planning in nine countries conforms to key features of this idealised planning model. Our analysis reveals discrepancies regarding how spatial planning is positioned in relation to sectoral policies across the various countries. We argue that this planning model appears rather to be in a state of dissolution than of consolidation.

I detta kapitel undersöker vi regional planering som generell företeelse och den svenska regionala planeringens besynnerligheter. Med utgångspunkt i detta är syftet med kapitlet att klargöra varför regional planering är en så komplicerad ekvation i Sverige idag.

Many scholars argue that regional planning has lost its political significance and practical relevance in recent years. Based on a comparative analysis of formal regional planning in eight European countries, this study questions and nuances this view. It is concluded that the institutional conditions for regional planning are still extensive and have been adapted to changing contexts since the year 2000, but along different pathways across the analysed countries. The investigation highlights that multiple forms of planning regions have been incorporated in the planning systems through multipurpose planning instruments that have further added to the existing dynamic and diversified regional planning landscape across Europe., This paper is based on findings from the applied research project ‘Comparative Analysis of Territorial Governance and Spatial Planning Systems in Europe (COMPASS)’ commissioned by the ESPON 2020 Cooperation Programme., ESPON COMPASS - Comparative Analysis of Territorial Governance and Spatial Planning Systems in Europe

Varför lokaliserades megaprojektet Nya Karolinska Solna till Hagasta- den mitt i Stockholmsregionen? Förutsättningarna för att bygga ett nytt sjukhus på denna plats var minst sagt komplexa och har i stor utsträckning påverkat planeringen och utformningen av sjukhuset samtidigt som projektet bidragit till att förändra platsen och dess omgivning. Ett megaprojekt beskrivs ofta i termer av komplexitet, ekonomisk storlek och tidsomfång men i detta kapitel analyseras lokaliseringen och formgivningen av ett megaprojekt, dess rumsliga dimensioner och bevekelsegrunder. Megaprojekt är som Flyvbjerg (2014) poängterat inte bara uppförstorade mindre projekt utan ofta extraordinära projekt med samhällsförändrande potential. De utmanar rådande samhällsstrukturer snarare än anpassar sig till dem. Ett megaprojekt är således svårt att avgränsa och att lokalisera det i tid och rum är en komplex fråga. Detta kapitel utgår ifrån ett utredningsuppdrag om beslutsprocesserna kring planeringen av Nya Karolinska Solna, det så kallade NKS-projektet. Detta megaprojekt syftade till att uppföra ett nytt sjukhus i den nya stadsdelen som fått namnet Hagastaden på gränsen mellan Karolinska sjukhusets område och Karolinska Institutets campus i Solna och det före detta Norra Stationsområdet i Stockholm. NKS var ett megaprojekt som inte bara handlade om att bygga ett nytt sjukhuskomplex, utan även om att omorganisera sjukvården i Stockholmsregionen. Dessutom var syftet också att främja forskning och tillväxt i regionen. Megaprojektet var en viktig del i en vision om att skapa en plats i världsklass, ett kluster för livsvetenskap integrerat i en internationellt attraktiv stadsmiljö.

Nya Karolinska sjukhuset i Solna (NKS) har varit ett omfattande samhällsplaneringsprojekt. Det har handlat om att bygga ett nytt sjukhus i världsklass och om att reformera sjukvården i regionen – en ny byggnad för en ny organisation. Det urbana sjukhuset har även varit en viktig komponent i stadsutvecklingsprojektet Hagastaden och i utvecklingen av ett regionalt kluster i världsklass. För att förstå ett megaprojekt som NKS är det viktigt att sätta in det i ett vidare samhälleligt sammanhang men också i den lokala och regionala kontext det är sprunget ur. Denna här rapporten redovisar resultat från en rumslig analys av detta samhällsplaneringsprojekt. I analysen har fokus varit dels på kontextens betydelse, dels på de olika typer av rumsliga föreställningar och fysiska åtgärder som har underbyggt planeringen av NKS och stadsdelen Hagastaden., Framtidens universitetssjukhus. Beslut om Nya Karolinska Solna

Strategic spatial planning has been suggested as a means for environmental sustainability. However, there are significant challenges with operationalising and integrating policy-driven strategic spatial planning within the standardised and process-oriented management systems of local authorities. This aspect has motivated discussions on how implementation of strategic spatial planning with a focus on environmental sustainability is conditioned by management systems. The empirical case is local planning and management practices in a local authority in Sweden. Interviews with planners, together with planning and policy documents, make up the empirical material. The analysis proposes that the integration of environmental perspectives into strategic spatial planning processes depends on (i) the overall concerns for environmental issues in local policy, and (ii) how administrative management systems can facilitate transformative practice in planning. In conclusion, this article illustrates how environmental sustainability in strategic spatial planning is formed and conditioned through interplay between local policy and administrative management procedures.

Across Europe the regional policy level is difficult to capture analytically, due to the prevailing differences in terms of institutional settings and political contexts, geographic size and scope of regions. Regional planning is not an exception as it is institutionalized differently across Europe and its practical significance varies in regard to mediating competition over the use of land, regulating change and promoting preferred spatial and urban form. In general, the regional level is often considered as an appropriate scale for addressing current challenges in relation to sustainable development; and regional planning as such is appreciated as a sub-national mode of horizontal and vertical coordination to integrate various policy fields. However, the institutional context of regional planning has changed significantly in recent years, which has resulted in weakening its political significance and practical relevance. In this paper, we question and nuance these seemingly diverging theoretical and practical views on the position of regional planning through a comparative analysis of regional planning across Europe. Drawing upon results from the ESPON COMPASS (2018) project, we investigate i) shifts in the distribution of spatial planning competences; ii) changes in regard to regional planning instruments, and iii) the role of regional planning within sectoral policies. We conclude that the institutional and instrumental conditions for regional planning across Europe are extensive and to some extent have been renewed and adapted to changing contexts in recent years. In principal regional planning seems to be well positioned to mediate the use of land and to regulate spatial development. However, the role of regional planning is differently positioned in each country in relation to various sectoral policies and the way statutory instruments are produced and applied. Due to diverging trajectories of regional planning our comparative analysis indicates only minor co

The objective of the COMPASS project was to provide an authoritative comparative report on changes in territorial governance and spatial planning systems in Europe from 2000 to 2016. This Final Report presents the main findings, conclusions and policy recommendations. The COMPASS project compares territorial governance and spatial planning in 32 European countries (the 28 EU member states plus four ESPON partner countries). COMPASS differs from previous studies in that the accent is not on a snapshot comparison of national systems, but on identifying trends in reforms from 2000 to 2016. It also seeks to give reasons for these changes with particular reference to EU directives and policies, and to identify good practices for the cross-fertilisation of spatial development policies with EU Cohesion Policy. The research is based on expert knowledge with reference wherever possible to authoritative sources. Experts with in-depth experience of each national system were appointed to contribute to the study. The research design involved primarily collection of data from the 32 countries through questionnaires and five in-depth case studies of the interaction of EU Cohesion Policy and other sectoral policies with spatial planning and territorial governance., ESPON COMPASS Comparative Analysis of Territorial Governance and Spatial Planning Systems in Europe

In some European countries, sub-national regions are important geographical arenas for spa- tial planning. However, in Sweden, statutory regional planning is rather limited and the regional level is often described as having a weak position in the spatial planning system. In this article, we investigate territorial governance practices in two Swedish regions, with a focus on their interaction with the EU and the national level, and with the local level, as well as how these regions function as organisations and arenas for coordination of different policy fields. The study is based on semi-structured expert inter- views and document analysis. The results show that spatial planning is practised both through statutory planning and soft planning approaches, and that these practices in different ways coordinate sectoral policies i.e. transport infrastructure and regional development. Both cases also illustrate difficulties not only of external coordination between different institutions and policy fields but also internally within or- ganisations. It is also highlighted that spatial planning at the regional level focuses on coordinating actors and policy fields but that spatial planning is also an instrument to implement regional policies. In con- clusion, it is argued that the organisation and territorial governance practices within a given institutional arrangement and the perception of spatial planning are crucial in determining how regions might function as multi-level coordination actors and policy arenas within spatial planning., ESPON COMPASS

The political conditions for spatial planning in the Nordic countries are changing in multiple directions. This chapter investigates recent shifts and trajectories of change in spatial planning in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The focus is on the politics behind these recent shifts and the induced rescaling processes and modification of spatial planning instruments. The chapter provides at first a background on the so-called Nordic model, the different political-administrative structures in the Nordic countries and recent changes in regard to the political conditions for spatial planning. After that, we review the shifts in the spatial planning systems in the countries with a particular focus on the spatial planning instruments in the last 15 years. This is followed by a section in which we compare a number of further trajectories related to spatial planning. In the concluding discussion, we take up the post-political question in order to reflect upon to what extent we can identify signifiers towards either depoliticization or even repoliticization in regard to spatial planning in the Nordic countries.

Plans and other planning instruments that are used to mediate and regulate spatial development are fundamental for the operation of spatial planning systems, and for defining them, as well as pursing spatial planning objectives. This paper is based on an extensive comparative study of spatial planning systems in Europe (ESPON COMPASS), which included a review of spatial planning instruments that are used to mediate competition over the use of land, to allocate rights of development, to regulate change and to promote preferred spatial and urban form. Over 250 spatial planning instruments in 32 different European countries were identified by national experts. The results show a diverse pattern with strong differences in regard to the instruments' characteristics (e.g. visionary, strategic, framework or regulative) at different policy levels (national, regional and local) even between countries that have been grouped together within similar types or traditions in earlier studies. Furthermore, many individual planning instruments are often expected to combine several functions, e.g. they are expected to simultaneously be, in different combinations; visionary and agenda setting, providing strategic and long-term coordination, establishing policy frameworks for other plans and decisions, and/or be regulatory including legally binding land use commitments. Many planning instruments might thus be understood as 'multi-purpose tools'. Based on this review and analysis we offer empirically derived typologies and conceptualizations of spatial planning instruments that provide a different image of spatial planning systems across Europe compared to earlier studies, and as such gives insights in what directions spatial planning in Europe is moving.

Spatial planning is often expected to coordinate other policy areas or sector policies, in particular those that have strong spatial impacts. Ideally this process of coordination shall lead to policy integration or to other forms of consensual agreements such as policy packages. Inevitably the question arises to what extent spatial planning can be considered as an autonomous policy area with specific instruments (e.g. statutory frameworks that are of visionary, strategic or regulative character) and power resources. We address this question by discussing and comparing the role of spatial planning across 32 European countries in relation to 14 other policy areas based on findings from the ESPON COMPASS study. First, the degree of integration of spatial planning is investigated within other policy areas at three different policy levels (national, sub-national and local). Secondly, the extent to which these 14 policy areas are influential in current debates on spatial planning will be compared with the year 2000. The analysis reveals a number of recurrent patterns and types of spatial planning as well as directions of change. In the end we argue that spatial planning plays a significant and for the most part even increasing role in relation to other policy areas in most of the studied countries in Europe, but at the same time we can construe a growing degree of diversification between countries, policy levels and policy areas.

The objective of the COMPASS project was to provide an authoritative comparative report on changes in territorial governance and spatial planning systems in Europe from 2000 to 2016. This Final Report presents the main findings, conclusions and policy recommendations. The COMPASS project compares territorial governance and spatial planning in 32 European countries (the 28 EU member states plus four ESPON partner countries). COMPASS differs from previous studies in that the accent is not on a snapshot comparison of national systems, but on identifying trends in reforms from 2000 to 2016. It also seeks to give reasons for these changes with particular reference to EU directives and policies, and to identify good practices for the cross-fertilisation of spatial development policies with EU Cohesion Policy. The research is based on expert knowledge with reference wherever possible to authoritative sources. Experts with in-depth experience of each national system were appointed to contribute to the study. The research design involved primarily collection of data from the 32 countries through questionnaires and five in-depth case studies of the interaction of EU Cohesion Policy and other sectoral policies with spatial planning and territorial governance., Additional volumes are available on the ESPON Website Volume 1. Comparative tables Volume 2. Methodology Volume 3. Phase 1 Questionnaire answers Volume 4. Phase 2 Questionnaire answers Volume 5. Additional countries feasibility study Volume 6. Case studies Volume 7. Analysis of Europeanisation influences See: https://www.espon.eu/planning-systems, Urbanism, Spatial Planning and Strategy

Rapid urbanisation is one of today’s biggest global challenges. Nordic Sustainable Cities is a flagship project under the Nordic Prime Ministers’ initiative Nordic Solutions to Global Challenges that seeks to shed light on this challenge from a Nordic perspective. The White Paper on Nordic Sustainable Cities develops a narrative to describe the “Nordic Sustainable City”. It forms a basis for the knowledge sharing effort that will be carried out by Nordic Innovation, Nordregio’s sister institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2018. This work aims to export Nordic stories as a means of branding the Nordic Region and contributing to global efforts towards urban sustainability.

In this paper we discuss findings of our case study on the making and implementation of the exhibition 'Experiment Stockholm' in 2015, which, based on artistic exhibits as well as a number of forums, aimed at generating creative narratives for the sustainable urban future in the Swedish capital city-region. Our analytical framework is informed by the emerging notion of 'urban living labs' across Europe as well as 'communicative' and 'actor-relational' planning theory', which is discussed in another paper within the poceedings of this conference (cf. Schmitt et al. 2016). We argue that the exhibition 'Experiment Stockholm' and the activities around it can be characterised as a soft mode of urban governance that can help to unlock creativity and to open up avenues for experimentation and alternative solutions in urban planning. However, caution must be taken to not overvalue such approaches, as our example implies a rather exclusive expert forum instead of a a mode of governance that might be associated with openness and wider engagement. In addition, our example illustrates the significance of suitable and unconventional methods, which otherwise considerably limits the innovative capacity of the participating stakeholders and their search for alternative solutions.

Contemporary challenges for the development of sustainable urban regions in the Nordic countries relate to how physical planning can contribute to green growth and city-regional competitiveness. More specifically, three types of challenges have been identified. The first relates to urban form and issues involving urban qualities and densification processes, accommodating rapid population growth, localisation and the mixing of urban functions. The second relates to social inclusion and segregation, the everyday life perspective and diversified lifestyles and mobility. Finally, while planning at the city-regional scale is increasingly seen as a way to meet these challenges, such a perspective also calls into question the traditional ways in which Nordic cities and regions are planned; the third type of challenge is therefore the fact that there is a recognised need for new and innovative forms of planning and governance.

How urban planning contributes to economic growth and local development is a question high on the political agenda in the Nordic countries. This highlights, in turn, other key policy issues: how public planning can more efficiently contribute to private urban development, in particular the production of new housing, to accommodate rapid urbanisation and solve the housing crises. The various interactions between different public and private actors and their different rationales are at the heart of these problems, including the potential tensions between efficiency and legitimacy

How can the established concept of ‘Norden’ – which covers the Northern European countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – be understood in a brave new world of megaregions? The significance of Norden, which literary means ‘the North’, is often acknowledged to be a ‘stabilised’ transnational (mega) region (Gustafsson, 2006). This is due, in part, to the Nordic countries sharing a number of cultural and historical commonalities, somewhat similar political trajectories through the 20th century and a well-known welfare state tradition. Yet, on closer inspection, we have seen in recent years various diverging development paths in territorial policy and politics in general, and urban and regional planning in particular. Furthermore, when adopting a relational perspective, we can detect how a number of Nordic city-regions are being formed and transformed – through transnational (business) networks and various related state spatial strategies – with the aim being to strategically place them as nodes within the global space of flows. What this amounts to is a more fluid geographical image of Norden. Against this backdrop the concept of Norden is an interesting example of how (mega) regions are being constructed through particular sets of relations, processes and mechanisms, while at the same time being challenged and deconstructed by other sets of relations, processes and mechanisms. In this chapter, we seek to problematize these happenings, providing critical reflections from a North European perspective. The research presented derives from a range of studies and observations produced by Nordregio – The Nordic Centre for Spatial Development.

Urbanisation is strong in the Nordic countries, with people and capital being concentrated into growing, expanding city regions. These urbanisation processes of concentration and expansion, and explosion and implosion are challenging traditional forms of planning and creating tensions within current planning systems and procedures, along with new forms of urban governance and policies in a number of ways. In the current age of austerity, there is an increased interest and need in finding new solutions and alternatives to provide housing, offices and other services to the new citizens. In addition and in parallel to this, in postpolitical Europe, there is also an increased emphasis on citizen engagement and public participation because of the perceived gap between politics and people’s everyday lives.

The ESPON DeTeC (Detecting Territorial Potential and Challenges) project has developed five territorial approaches that can support regional stakeholders in revealing and detecting challenges and potential within a wider territorial context from a European perspective. The objective of this article is to present these approaches, which can be used to make ESPON knowledge more tangible and which can help in navigating through the inherent tensions, associated with the policy concept of territorial cohesion. In doing so, the article provides at first a brief introduction to the concept of territorial cohesion, a presentation and discussion of the territorial approaches with a particular focus on how they address exogenous challenges and endogenous potentials, conceptualize regional territories within relational spaces, and finally, how they direct attention towards territorial governance and the fluidity of scales and places. It is a practice oriented article that in conclusion discusses how territorial approaches can provide guidance for strategic local and regional policy making and how they help to open up new perspectives in local and regional development through the application of ESPON knowledge., ESPON DeTeC