Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
introducing their understanding of 'planning' in the process, and thus shaping the
debate. These were in particular north-west European countries with mature plan-
ning systems and equipped with sufficient financial and staff resources to bring the
debate forward as well as maybe a clearer 'vision' of the appropriate agenda for
European spatial development. The development of the ESDP showed that the
'strategy of the first move' (Faludi, 2002b) has been of high relevance with regard
to the introduction of 'mapping ideas' by individual member states (France, the
Netherlands), but also in shaping the approach taken to cartographic representa-
tion (qualitative and highly generalised in the French trend scenarios versus quanti-
tative-oriented and GIS-based for the policy maps prepared under the Italian and
Dutch presidencies), as well as with regard to withdrawing from the attempt to
visualise spatial policies for the EU territory altogether under the UK presidency.
Both the Netherlands and Germany have had a long-standing interest in European
spatial development, reflecting their central position on the European continent and
the interdependence with neighbouring countries. This means that both countries
have significantly influenced and shaped the debates on the European Spatial
Development Perspective and other European or transnational initiatives. In com-
parison, and reflecting the different understanding of the organisation of planning,
the political nature of planning and the generally Euro-sceptic approach of previous
governments, the UK has until more recently played a minor, even at times openly
critical and oppositional, role in the progress on a spatial development agenda for
the EU territory.
The ESDP process has shown that the development of informal transnational
spatial strategies over a long period of time implies the danger of 'institutional
information loss', in the sense of a missing 'authority' that could safeguard the con-
sistency in approach and continuation of previous experiences and joint know-
ledge. For the ESDP process, this relates not only to the change in approach that
could be introduced by every presidency but, more importantly, to the development
of cartographic products in the process. The analysis in Chapter 5 has shown that
after the French trend scenarios had been produced, they were strongly criticised
for being subjective and a 'jigsaw' of different definitions, categorisations and inter-
pretations. Yet the very same information was subsequently transferred on to a GIS
system and provided the basis of what were meant to be 'objective' spatial analysis
maps - an approach which by implication has to lead to confusion among particip-
ants. There is a place for both spatial analysis maps and trend or policy scenarios
in a 'spatial vision', yet it needs to be clear to all involved what type the illustrations
represent, as this will also affect their layout and design. The 'linguistic structure'
(Pickles, 1992) communicates a clear message to the reader, and an illustration of
policy proposals represented on a GIS base implies more certainty about the
spatial structure than would be appropriate. Furthermore, the ideas of the French
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