Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
for discussion and mainly used for internal consultation. Towards the end of the
ESDP process, the circle of planning officials involved in the process were prepar-
ing to present the ESDP to a wider audience and had to discuss it with other
sector ministries. This resulted in higher political sensitivity towards any carto-
graphic product, as conflict with other interests in the national context had to be
avoided. This tension between individual and national interests can be illustrated by
the support given to the ESDP by the Spanish delegate at one of the last CSD
meetings prior to the finalisation of the strategy, who - until the decision over the
EU Structural Funds allocation had been reached - had demonstrated a rather
unsupportive attitude. Overall, however, the discussions on policy maps for the
ESDP were of a highly political nature, and political struggles were possibly most
pronounced in the discussions on spatial development policy versus regional
policy. The reluctance of southern member states to engage in the spatial
representation of aspects related to the economic competitiveness of territories
reflects their political interest in keeping public attention away from any aspects
that could have affected the future distribution of Structural Funds.
In many ministries and public administrations the tasks of 'planning' and
'mapping' are separated, and sometimes cartographic services have been out-
sourced (as in the UK). Where there are cartographic units within planning depart-
ments, these often have a strong emphasis on GIS and spatial analysis, and might
consider a more design-led approach 'unscientific'. Whether a more qualitative,
highly generalised (and non-geo-referenced) design approach is favoured, or whether
quantitative, GIS-based and geo-referenced maps are deemed more appropriate,
appears to depend at least partly on the cartographers and graphic designers
involved in the process, and thus ultimately on the dominant discipline, curriculum
and education of planners and cartographers. In the ESDP process, the teams often
consisted of individuals with a wide variety of professional backgrounds, and some
with a much stronger inclination to concentrate on the use of GIS than others.
Working with maps can be deeply emotional, and during the ESDP process
emotions have in the main provoked controversies. However, it has been argued
that ways should be found to use the emotional power of maps to make them con-
vincing and help to 'sell' a spatial strategy or spatial policies better (Roeleveld,
2003). Thus, involving graphic designers (or even artists) as well as cartographers
in the process of preparing cartographic representations of spatial policies at
transnational or EU level can prove beneficial, as graphic designers are experts in
influencing emotions through visual expressions. The discussion on the form and
content of cartographic representations in European spatial planning has not been
resolved, and questions that need to be answered in the future will also be about
the appropriate projection, scale and level of generalisation in mapping for trans-
national planning.
