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European Planning and the Polycentric Consensus: Wishful Thinking ?

par Vandermotten, Christian ;Halbert, L.;Roelandts, Marcel ;Cornut, Pierre
Référence Regional studies, 42, 8, page (1205-1217)
Publication Publié, 2008

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

European planning and the polycentric consensus: wishful thinking?, Regional Studies. European Union planning documents enhance the values of polycentrism as a tool to promote a more efficient, equitable and sustainable development. This paper highlights how and suggests why a descriptive approach of the European urban system became progressively a normative concept. It examines how biases in the measurement of polycentricity in the European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) 1.1.1. report (2005) are related to this normative approach. The empirical findings do not suggest any clear correlation between more polycentricity and more economic efficiency or even more spatial equity. The paper examines the reasons for the European Union tenacity to promote polycentrism. This concept seems to be the result of a political compromise and a strange hybrid between two competing approaches for the future of the European space.