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The digitalization of the Global South, particularly with respect to African countries, is moving at a fast pace. This can be seen in the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in different domains such as healthcare, education, industry, entertainment, as well as in the provision of e-government services, to name just a few. Such digital progress is seen as positive and often presented as such in international development discussions, for example at the World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2019 on ICTs for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the positives, there are also negative aspects of digitalization, which have to be addressed in the form of ethical concerns. This paper discusses these concerns by specifically exploring the aspect of power in light of the digital transformation of the Global South. The discussion advanced in this paper is informed by a review of literature.

The vacancy rate is a key indicator of housing market monitoring and is used to assess housing market situations. In Germany, the vacancy rates of cities and rural areas vary widely, which is due to the different characteristics of the housing stock e.g. in terms of building age or flat size. Up to now, there are hardly systematic analyses of the vacancy structure which capture the full variation of vacancy patterns. Against this background the paper aims at detecting the different structure of vacancies for German municipalities. Therefore, small-scale data from the Building and Housing Census (GWZ) 2011 is used, covering the whole country. The vacancy data can be differentiated according to 50 characteristics which are checked against their explanatory power for the vacancy rate. Based on this, spatial vacancy types are built that reflect the vacancy structure in Germany at the municipal level. The paper underlines that building age as well as building and flat size have the highest explanation power. However, there are clear differences between Eastern and Western Germany, for example with regard to ownership. The typology of municipalities sharpens and spatially locates these findings. In addition to east-west and urban-rural differences there are types of vacancy structure that occur throughout Germany. The paper presents an analysis which helps to differentiate, evaluate and classify vacancy structures. The results allow to derive evidences for urban planning or housing policy measures as well as to qualify the housing monitoring at the federal level.

Coastal and marine areas represent an increasingly important and relevant action space for spatial planning. However, to a large extent marine (or maritime) spatial planning has emerged separately from terrestrial spatial planning, constituting its own epistemic community. In particular, previous studies indicate that Marine Spatial Planning often follows an expert-driven resource management rationale focused on sea-use regulation. This paper examines practices of Marine Spatial Planning and Integrated Coastal Zone Management at the German North Sea coast. The paper focuses in particular on the engagement of spatial planners with these practices and their perception of their role therein. We seek to understand what form spatial planning at the coast and at sea currently takes and how this might develop in the future in response to current and anticipated policy developments. We argue for the necessity of a communicative, cross-sectoral approach to spatial planning at sea, providing a spatial vision for the future that extends from the Exclusive Economic Zone to encompass both the coastal waters of the federal states and the land-sea interface in a substantive manner.

For planners, processes of complex spatial transformations today are comparable to uncharted land and an uncertain voyage. Many possible role images overlap and contrast to traditional and established ways of thinking and acting. The focus here is on navigating instead of controlling, about supporting instead of enforcing. Planning lacks tools to think and act when facing uncertainty. This paper proposes role-reflexive planning as an educational and experimental approach to thinking through different potentialities. It offers groundwork from the boundary between planning and transition studies, using role-based ideas as a bridge. It offers an overview about different roles that are relevant to working towards transformations as spatial planners. It develops an account of role-reflexive planning that connects between contexts, actions and back to individual modes of behaviour in planning processes. As a basis, this paper condenses experiences of a role-playing pilot workshop and discussions about potential elements of a transition towards 'post-growth planning'. It outlines how role-playing challenges the individual roles of actors beyond the game situations themselves. Conceptual ideas foster a renewed role-based debate on thinking and acting in the face of uncertainty and ways to navigate through the stormy waters of transformation.

Discourses in planning theory and in society question the role of planning as decision makers for urban development. Protests of citizens show that their concerns often find too little attention in questions of developing cities. In consequence, a need for rethinking the practice of urban planning becomes apparent. Therefore, it is required to implement an understanding of planning as an integrative process, which is informed by the needs of the people living in the city. At the same time, methods and concepts are needed to identify the heterogeneous concerns of the citizens and to bring them into the planning process. In the first part, the paper presents an idea of citizen-oriented planning practice. In the second part, a methodological framework shows how the differentiated needs of people can be identified and abstracted as a framework which serves as an orientation for decision-making in planning processes. Therefore, the paper refers to approaches of practice theory and focusses on everyday productions of space as a heuristic tool for identifying the needs of people practicing their everyday life. For making it more concrete, the concept is adapted to questions of planning the urban green. Empirical findings show how urban green typically gets relevant in people's practices of everyday life and how planning practice can refer to these findings seeking for a citizen driven urban development.

This paper discusses the representativeness of the German Biosphere Reserves. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals will serve as the theoretical framework of this analysis. Germany currently accounts a share of 16 % of the terrestrial land area under strict nature protection. This means that there is no quantity problem. Rather, the question arises about the number, geographical distribution and quality of protected areas – in this example Biosphere Reserves. So far, scientific papers only focus on the natural landscape representativeness of Biosphere Reserves in Germany. This is not enough for this category of protected areas as it rests on the paradigm of sustainable development. This is why this paper is focusing on possible structural and socioeconomic shortcomings in the network of German Biosphere Reserves. Therefore, precise indicators will be analysed in form of thematical maps to address selected Sustainable Development Goals. Furthermore, the existing Biosphere Reserves will be analysed if and to what extent they are able to reach their intended exemplary function towards "the rest of the world" as models for sustainable development.

In this paper, the sociological term multioptionality is translated into the field of transport and mobility research. The aim is to stimulate a change of perspective from actual to potential mode choice by conceptualising multioptionality as a precondition for multimodal behaviours. The intention is to criticise the largely positive debate concerning transition from the automobile to the multimodal society. Multimodality discourse assumes a shift from the largely exclusive use of private cars to the flexible use of several transport modes. In this respect, the paper discusses the critical role of the concept of multioptionality in the transitional debate in three steps. i) The paper argues that structural developments such as interconnected mobility services legitimise the assumption of potentially "more" options, which increases opportunities for realising multimodal behaviours in everyday mobility, ii) Regressive tendencies in modern society lead to the assumption that mode options are, however, increasingly unequally distributed. In this sense, the emergence of multioptionality can be classified as a socially selective trend. iii) A concept proposal is put forward according to which the term multioptionality can be incorporated into empirical studies on multimodality in order to take a critical view of the uneven preconditions of options for the realisation of multimodal behaviours.

Population registers can make an important contribution to spatially related planning in rural municipalities. This has been illustrated in a number of recent studies that have examined processes of demographic change and service requirements in Germany’s rural areas. These investigations are usually case-study based and share an approach involving the geo-coding of municipal population registers and their analysis using Geographical Information Systems. This reveals and allows the analysis of population structures and changes thereto, also for units below the municipal level, as is rarely possible when using population data held by supra-municipal statistical authorities. This paper draws on findings from these investigations. It combines them to form a line of argument that demonstrates the value of the approach for both the municipal and the regional levels, using illustrative examples from Bavaria and Sachsen-Anhalt. In addition to general demographic aspects, the focus is on “accessibility” and “real estate” as topics that are associated with demographic processes. Discussion of the value of this approach is intended to motivate the increased use of population registers both in academic research and in planning practice. Attention is also drawn to the limits of the approach with a view to future population trends. By highlighting both the value and the limits of the use of geo-coded municipal population data the paper also aims to support the implementation of digitalisation strategies in the planning of rural areas.

Multiple variables determine the consumption of heat energy: technical, organisational, economic, legal, and social. Since these drivers also interact with each other in various ways, they may have an ambiguous effect when evaluating sustainability. This paper gives a comprehensive picture of how future heat consumption might develop. We seek to unveil opportunities,. constraints and contradictions within the system of heat consumption. In order to identify, analyze and illustrate consistent pathways for future development, we apply the cross impact balance analysis - a qualitative method for analysing impact networks-, thereby focusing on the question how the process of transforming heat consumption in Germany towards a sustainable supply can be assisted. We discuss challenges with regard to the multi.facetted and interrelated variables, outline approaches for assessing policy options and political consulting (e.g., concerning the design of research funding programmes) as well as identify opportunities for the advancement of energy system analysis. INSET: More than the Sum of Its Parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to the well-established concept "vulnerability", there has been less research on "social vulnerability", particularly with respect to highly developed welfare states. Conducting an in-depth study on the consequences of the 2002 Elbe flood in three German communities, the paper tests the applicability of the concept of social vulnerability in a European context. The research was based on the assumption that it is an expression of social inequality. Yet, socially vulnerable groups were not clearly distinguishable. This does not suggest, however, that social vulnerability is not relevant in the European context. Rather, it is the outcome of a complex web of drivers that are of both social and contextual origin. Three implications are outlined for future studies: the need to integrate top-down and bottom-up oriented approaches to assess social vulnerability, to embed our understanding of social vulnerability better in overall societal transformation processes, and to consider existing governance and management systems and their interrelations as well as their consequences for social vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to the well-established concept "vulnerability", there has been less research on "social vulnerability", particularly with respect to highly developed welfare states. Conducting an in-depth study on the consequences of the 2002 Elbe flood in three German communities, the paper tests the applicability of the concept of social vulnerability in a European context. The research was based on the assumption that it is an expression of social inequality. Yet, socially vulnerable groups were not clearly distinguishable. This does not suggest, however, that social vulnerability is not relevant in the European context. Rather, it is the outcome of a complex web of drivers that are of both social and contextual origin. Three implications are outlined for future studies: the need to integrate top-down and bottom-up oriented approaches to assess social vulnerability, to embed our understanding of social vulnerability better in overall societal transformation processes, and to consider existing governance and management systems and their inter-relations as well as their consequences for social vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful implementation of conservation projects depends on both effective ecological solutions and favorable political factors. The question is, whether programs like chance.natur, the German national program on large-scale conservation, foster such success factors within projects. In analyzing 13 success factors, this paper identifies ten that are strengthened by the program, and three that are not yet activated. Main success factors are strong actors, professional networks, advocates, active management of a project's political environment, and financial and labor resources. Analyzing success factors indicates not only how a program effects the implementation of projects, it can also be used for the future optimization of nature conservation programs and their design. The research results prove the relevance of the transdisciplinary exchange between science and practice, which has been going on for the last 14 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of GAIA: Ecological Perspectives for Science & Society is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Debates about the impacts of climate change necessarily exist within ethical debates and frameworks. This paper discusses the ethical foundations of three discourses concerning climate change: economics of climate change, climate protection as lifestyle, and carbon debt. These approaches are seen to be problematic because they are absolutist, hindering their inter - national acceptance. In contrast, human rights could provide a coherent and worldwide acceptable basis for the ethics of climate change. Here, five normative dimensions of human rights are identified and their possible contribution to a coherent and convincing climate policy is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate the dangerous impacts of climate change, anthropogenic CO2 emissions must be reduced drastically. In this context, carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) has been increasingly considered as an option. As a part of the energy and climate change package, the EU has for the first time provided a comprehensive legal framework for the regulation of CCS at the national level. CCS can also be implemented under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol, which allows industrial countries to fulfil part of their emission reduction targets in developing countries. This paper explores this option, illustrating how elements of the legal framework proposed for CDM projects in the EU could be utilised, assuming CCS is approved for the CDM. Demonstration of large-scale feasibility and long-term security of storage is still lacking, however. The German Advisory Council on Environment therefore calls for a new law addressing research instead of comprehensive regulation of commercial use under the CCS directive of the EU. To nonetheless provide developing countries with access to CCS technology, promotion as part of technology transfer agreements is a possible alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Densification and more efficient use of land are important planning challenges across Europe intended to aid the pursuit of sustainability goals. Property taxation influences land use. It can discourage or incentivize efficient land use. In the international academic debate, the land value tax is considered an effective land policy instrument that can promote more efficient use of land. Germany is currently transforming its property taxation system and has discussed different property tax models in the political decision-making process. This paper explores the political motivations of this reform based on a discourse analysis of plenary sessions and complementary in-depth expert interviews. On the one hand, the empirical findings highlight the experts’ positive assessment of the potential of the land value tax for efficient land use and densification. On the other hand, they also show how the potential allocative effects of the land value tax were largely overlooked during the political debates. Instead, discussion centred around distributional aspects of the property tax. It can be shown that despite the great potential for tackling urgent planning issues, policymakers are hesitant to adopt and apply instruments of land policy that intervene in existing private property rights.

This paper presents initial findings on the establishment of a social logistics project in a peripheral rural region in Germany. As part of a real-life laboratory, two services were developed and tested with the aim of improving rural supply: the delivery of regional goods and the return of online orders in cooperation with a regional public transport provider, regional retailers and parcel services. An evaluation team provided support to the project in identifying, monitoring, and documenting the societal impact of the services and promoted impact-oriented project management. The concept of providing services of general interest through social logistics and testing them in a real-world laboratory was based on preliminary work in the region. The results indicate that this approach can promote this type of social logistics in the long term. A social logistics approach does not focus solely on economic aspects but emphasises social and environmental benefits for the region. A real-world laboratory approach enables an environment that promotes open exchange, involvement of different stakeholders and joint problem solving in a reflective, iterative process. This methodological approach enabled the continuation and out-scaling of the service’s core offerings immediately after ending the test phase and is seen as an important prerequisite for establishing a long-term perspective.

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Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Briefe zur Interdisziplinarität is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The urgency of the energy transition is in conflict with delaying effects and options that are not optimally used in the complex, multi-stage German planning system. This also applies to the law and procedures of spatial planning, as well as the interaction of spatial planning with construction planning and sectoral law. Here, fundamental reform options have not yet been exhausted, despite many current legislative projects. Some procedural steps and options for legislative deviations can be eliminated altogether, the interaction of planning and decision-making levels can be made more effective, and subject-related certain hierarchical levels in the planning system could be omitted on a topic-specific basis. Based on a brief analysis of the initial situation for spatial planning, this paper first provides corresponding general considerations on such far-reaching acceleration options and their consequences. This is followed by the presentation of numerous specific spatial planning-related optimisation options.

In line with the European Commission’s target, land take in Germany has to be reduced to net zero by 2050. This not only presupposes greater inner urban development and more efficient development outside existing settlements, but also puts a greater planning and political focus on renaturation. The aim of this paper is to investigate the implementation of no net land take policy using the example of the highly dense and urbanised federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. Based on an online survey, the current and potential use of (planning) instruments to implement this policy in all 396 municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia was investigated. The findings suggest that the municipalities are not yet in a position to consistently implement no net land take. Particularly in the field of renaturation, this is often due to a lack of experience and uncertainties in the use of the existing (planning) instruments, but also to lacking awareness of the problem and a lack of political and social acceptance for higher housing densities. Since the necessary instruments are defined in current legislation and the concepts for implementation are generally known, it is important to support municipalities in using the available instruments and concepts even without direct pressure to act.

Volunteer firefighters are an established institution in many rural areas across Europe. In spite of this ubiquity, many volunteer brigades have been increasingly facing challenges in discharging their functions. Issues such as undertaking necessary investments, and ensuring daytime availability have become particularly critical against the backdrop of an increase in the number of interventions. Many of the measures intended to futureproof volunteer firefighting are based on transferring responsibility to different actors. To this end developing and expanding the reach of fire safety education functions to enhance the public’s prevention and self-protection skills. The aim of this paper is to explore the process of institutional change induced by innovative initiatives, which aim to advance fire safety education. For the study, we draw on empirical research, which follows the development and mainstreaming of two projects in Austria and Germany. These initiatives aim to standardise disparate approaches and are underpinned by new forms of multi-level cooperation. Our inductive analysis identifies five key steps which define the successful long-term implementation of projects in coproduced services of general interest. We conclude with observations on the redistribution of responsibility for fire services and hazard prevention in contemporary societies.

People's perceptions of climate change are crucial for their readiness to engage in mitigation and adaptation. To identify the most influential factors in shaping perceptions of climate change, we conducted a comprehensive survey, carried out in Bavaria, Germany. Overall, 2,594 individuals across four societal actor groups were surveyed, namely 1,413 farmers, 197 foresters, 152 nature managers, and 832 citizens (no specific profession). We explored to what extent environmental factors (climate trends and land cover conditions in interviewees' place of residence -- based on geographical data) and socio-demographic factors (age, gender, education, societal actor group affiliation -- based on survey data) influence perceptions of climate change. Data analyses, including random forest algorithms, revealed socio-demographic factors, particularly societal actor group affiliations, as most influential variables. Local land cover conditions and climate trends only marginally affected residents' perceptions. Consequently, our results suggest to consider socio-demographic factors for tailoring climate communication, policies and awareness raising campaigns, particularly targeting societal groups most skeptical about climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Currently, spatial planning contributes to the management of flood risks by keeping flood-prone area free of further development. This approach does not contribute to the reduction of flood risks which are mainly related to already built-up areas. For reducing flood risks, threatened settlement and infrastructure have to be protected or retreated from flood-prone areas. This paper discusses managed settlement retreat. First, the present role of spatial planning in flood risk management is investigated by means of a literature survey and an analysis of the practice of spatial planning in all major territorial states. Moreover, existing examples for managed settlement retreat from Germany and other countries are analysed. Managed settlement retreat can be conceptualized as a proactive or reactive planning strategy in order to reduce flooding risk. The paper presents the results of a gaming simulation of a proactive settlement retreat in Saxonia (Germany). This test proved the applicability of managed settlement retreat in context or urban renewal. Here, a close cooperation between urban development, regional planning and water management is seen as a success factor.

This paper provides a brief overview of recent developments and debates concerned with suburbanisation in continental Europe. While current discourses in urban research and practice still focus on processes of reurbanisation and the gentrification of inner-city areas, suburbia continues to exist and thrive. Depending on the definition applied, suburban areas still attract a large share of in-migration and employment growth in cities of the developed countries. Given that popular meta-narratives on suburbia and suburbanisation are often spurred by, or refer to, North American suburban studies, we take a different perspective here, one based on continental European trajectories of development in and across city-regional areas that are considered to be suburban, and on social processes that are associated with suburbanisation (suburbanisms). Thus, we aim to avoid a biased understanding of suburbia as a spatial category, which is often considered mono-functional, non-sustainable, or in generic decline. Instead, we observe that suburban variety is huge, and the distinction between urban core and fringe seems to be as ambiguous as ever. The paper, which also introduces the theme of this special issue of “Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning”, bundles our findings along four themes: on suburbia as a place of economic development, on the shifting dynamics of housing between core and fringe locales, on the life-cyclic nature of suburbanisation, and on strategies for redevelopment. Finally, we discuss certain topics that may deserve to be addressed by future research, particularly on the European variant of suburbanisation and suburbs.

This paper takes a spatially differentiated and temporally variegated perspective on suburban areas. It proposes a conceptual framework for studying the temporal variation and related trajectories of the subject matter, with suburban lifecycles being the key to our analysis. In empirical terms, the paper summarises the findings of research undertaken in 12 selected locales of four major metropolitan regions in Germany. Against the background of assessing the broader socioeconomic development of these regions, detailed local case studies have been conducted in order to reconstruct past and current development trajectories. Our analyses detected particular life cycles (and related segments) in the study areas, based on age and social composition, the physical conditions of the built environment and broader developments in the real-estate market. The different cycles include, in most cases, growth, maturity, transition and resilience, and they are also discussed in terms of their relevance for strategies responding to recent changes.

Within the interplay of demographic factors, characteristics of the housing stock, spatial parameters and the resulting conditions on the housing market in many municipalities a declining demand for single family homes built in the 1950s to 1970s goes along with an increasing supply in this segment of the housing market. At this, however, strong regional disparities can be observed. In this paper, a concept of indicators on the municipal level to estimate the situation of the 1950s to the 1970s single-family homes is presented. Based on the example of North Rhine-Westphalia in a first step regional spatial patterns are identified based on some of these indicators. The focus of the paper is on the subsequent synthesis of the indicators by means of a cluster analysis (two-step method). As a result, six clusters with similar developments and challenges regarding the 1950s to 1970s single-family-homes stocks are identified and the operative requirements for these clusters are discussed. From the methodological perspective the paper shows that the cluster analysis by the means of the two-step method is a promising alternative to the Ward method frequently adopted in spatial sciences.

In Germany’s territorial planning community, the relation of demographic change, the provision of public services and civic engagement is mainly sketched out as a substitution logic, in which volunteer work substitutes for employed work of state agencies in the provision of public services. The aim of this paper is a critical assessment of this substitution logic. The central question is: how realistic is this fictional model of substitution in the light of current patterns of demographic change in Germany? Methodologically the paper draws on a literature review, which is, first, used to outline definitions and empirical evidence regarding civic engagement in Germany, and second, to present in detail and critically reflect the main discourse in German territorial planning regarding the relation of public services and demographic change. The central result is the description of three dilemmas (geographic, political and motivational dilemma), that hinder a realistic implementation of substitution. As a consequence, suggestions are made for a better conceptualization of the relation of public service provision and civic engagement in the light of demographic change. It is argued that civic engagement should more strongly be conceived in combination with tools for recognition, the geographic disparities of civic engagement must be considered more strongly, and state agents must reflect on and redefine their role and self-conception in relation to engaging social groups, with the aim of a more equal partnership.

Abstract Managing and controlling “land take” of agricultural and natural land for urbanisation is the target of European and national policies. Although this objective seems to be increasingly understood among the actors, the prioritisation of issues and the measures taken by governments to achieve it are very heterogeneous. The practices of local public and private actors do not necessarily follow the directions established at national level by the instruments. This paper examines the concrete forms, in France, of collective action in the field of spatial planning to limit land take, particularly in French cross-border areas that are experiencing strong urban growth. The survey is based on 60 semi-structured interviews with public actors involved in the spatial transformations of the cross-border regions around Geneva, Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai, Luxembourg and Strasbourg-Karlsruhe. The survey shows that collective action in spatial planning is very diverse in France, depending on the regions and municipalities concerned, even if the legal rules are the same. Local public actors play strategically with the rules and adapt them. Moreover, the organisation of collective action to limit land take is marked by interdependencies between regions, and in our case between neighbouring countries, which are often left unexamined in national planning policies and instruments.

Since the beginning of this decade, society has been confronted with multiple crises that also act as new drivers of spatial development. Based on a literature review and qualitative interviews with housing market actors, this paper presents an interim balance of the lasting influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on housing preferences and location decisions as well as initial empirical knowledge and theses on the effects of the 2022 energy crisis on these decisions. It emerges that the energy crisis already has a greater impact on spatial development today and will probably have a greater impact in the medium and long term than the pandemic. Housing preferences that arose during the pandemic have already shifted again or can no longer be implemented at present. At the same time, the influences of the pandemic can no longer be considered in isolation from the energy crisis. While the pandemic will further intensify spatial deconcentration processes, the effects of the energy crisis are spatially more differentiated. Moreover, in a time of multiple crises, future spatial development will not be shaped by individual crises, but by their interaction – also with long-standing trends such as the ageing of society.

The critique of planning and new proposals to reform the English planning system and “rethink planning from first principles” have led to the introduction of rules-based principles into what is regarded as the paradigm of a discretionary planning system, culminating in a recent White Paper, which it is claimed will create a faster and better planning system than the existing discretionary approach. But are these proposals based on an oversimplified understanding of the differences between discretionary and regulatory models, neglecting, for example, the negotiation between stakeholders and the flexibility which also exists in regulatory planning systems? Our contribution will review some of the recent changes of the English planning system and reflect on experiences with zoning in European countries to bust the myth that the planning reform claims to address: the possibility to combine faster decision making with better place making and less interference from local planning authorities.

Since the “communicative turn“ planning research has been intensively concerned with how conflicts should and are dealt with. Approaches of “agonistic“ planning theory contradict the normative premise of building consensus among planning participants. Rather, they want to make conflicting positions normatively fruitful for spatial development. At the same time, they emphasise a supposed duality of planning and protest, which is questioned in recent protest and movement theory. Building on a discussion of different approaches in planning and protest theory as well as an empirical analysis of planning-related protests in Germany, this paper shows that these protests are increasingly perceived as “normality“ by planning actors and that antagonistic participation remains culturally bounded despite increasing conflictuality and the supposed questioning of representative democracy. Protest action is part of differentiated “participation bundles“ that, depending on the situation, also include public participation, direct democratic referenda and lawsuits. Protesters usually pursue a reform-oriented agenda that does not require “taming“. However, the underlying conflicts often cannot be “resolved“ at all. Planners, on the other hand, may have rationalist and deliberative approaches at their disposal even within an agonistic planning environment, which they use situationally and strategically.

Three years ago, the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic challenged academia just like any other societal field, while at the same time putting science center stage. Media attention tended to focus on particular disciplines, such as epidemiology and microbiology, and on individual, mostly local, experts. Based on the idea that science as a global, multidisciplinary community has something to offer society beyond the highly specialized output of individual research fields prepared for local, short-term perspectives, the Institute of Technology Assessment of the Austrian Academy of Sciences launched a spontaneous expert survey in June 2021 with a global and interdisciplinary aspiration, addressing three non-standard issues related to the pandemic and its management: side effects, opportunities, and preparedness. In this paper, we present our methodology and the results of our analysis. We conclude with a discussion of potential contributions of technology assessment in times of sudden, global crises.

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At the beginning of the millennium, Hamburg’s urban strategy “Metropolis Hamburg – Growing City” was a sensation for urban studies and urban planning. On one hand, it was one of the first urban policy papers that explicitly focused on growth, on the other hand, entirely new actor constellations within urban development became apparent because external experts like management consultants were identified as key actor besides urban government and planning department. This was generalized as “McKinseyization“. Taking Hamburg as an example, this paper addresses the questions which role the consultancy McKinsey played for the Growing City Strategy and what McKinseyization of urban development means against this background. These questions are still highly relevant because management consultants are regularly involved in urban and regional development strategies ever since then. In order to bind these diverse topics together, I begin with introducing the interrelationships between strategic urban development and consulting. Then I will elaborate the concrete interrelationship between Hamburg’s strategy and McKinsey’s paper “Hamburg Vision 2020” from 2001. The analysis shows that the thesis of a McKinseyization needs to be re-evaluated: from a direct influence of McKinsey towards the production of a context which enables the establishment of new entrepreneurial urban policies. Finally I qualify the dimensions characterizing a McKinseyization. The paper thus contributes to a still pending processing of the Growing City strategy‘s roots and generally synthesizes the complex context of origin of strategic urban development under the influence of external advice.

In Europe, metropolitan policies emerge in a multi-scalar system of supranational, national and regional scales. Besides national policies on metropolitan issues, more and more European policies address metropolitan regions. They propose varying attributes of what characterizes a metropolitan region, for instance, defining them as functional and statistical areas, or as nodes for European spatial development. These conceptualizations of metropolitan regions have implications for institutional forms of metropolitan governance. However, existing research has not yet comparatively explored the development of metropolitan concepts in national and supranational policy contexts. This paper compares the changing concepts of metropolitan regions in the European Union, France and Germany. It raises the question of how different policies conceptualize metropolitan regions. Thereby, the paper proposes a comparative perspective on concepts in policies addressing metropolitan regions, such as policy documents, planning strategies, regulations or reports. It analyses shifts in metropolitan policies by describing the change of concepts and the reference to frames of spatial development such as polycentricity, competitiveness or integrated development. Three analytical perspectives contribute to understanding the change of metropolitan policies. First, the comparison of concepts in different national and supranational policy contexts develops an understanding of metropolitan regions beyond national specificities. Second, a historical comparison contributes to understanding changes in metropolitan concepts since the late 1990s. And third, analysing the development of metropolitan policies comparatively explores similarities of concepts and frames between policy contexts, despite differences in institutional settings.

This paper highlights the practical opportunities that contingent valuation can deliver to improve park management. Although green infrastructure, such as urban parks, provides huge benefits to society, investments require a strong economic justification and have to be based on societal needs and preferences. Accordingly, this paper investigates, by means of a survey of willingness to pay and willingness to work, how users value possible improvements to the management of Dortmund Westpark, and which determinants influence their decisions. In line with the scientific discussion of integrating economic valuation in decision making, we introduce a simple approach to applying valuation results to planning. Total willingness to pay and willingness to work are set in proportion to the real-time costs of suggested proposals. To make the findings useful for park management, these proposals consider the weighting of users’ preferences. Total hypothetical working hours are also integrated into the approach by proposing where they could be used most effectively. Our study reveals the high social values people attach to park improvements and demonstrates the potential benefits of contingent valuation study results for decision making.

Power is inherent to spatial planning, especially in decision-making processes, but also within the planning and the implementation process. Apparently, a central challenge seems to be the analysis and evaluation of not only institutionalised power shown in legislative instruments and financial resources, but also regarding the current use of power in the planning processes. This paper provides a new conceptual framework to analyse the power characteristics and uses within the planning process. Based on power relations in theory and practice, similar methods and their approach to the illustration of questions of power are presented in a first step. Subsequently, the method of systemic constellations is explained and portrayed in detail, followed by an exemplary illustration of the method in scholarship and practice. The paper ends up with critical conclusions on potentials and limits of the implementation of systemic constellations in spatial planning processes.

Land-use systems and biodiversity in Germany can be investigated using the network of protected areas. This issue focuses on nature parks, national parks and biosphere reserves that are confronted with various problems related to competition for land and acceptance. The working group “Biodiversity and sustainable land use in protected areas” of the Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL) has tackled this topic. This paper reviews the research questions that are debated in this special issue of “Raumforschung und Raumordnung”. These questions include the influence of different land-use systems on the state of ecosystem services, how the different types of protected areas should be evaluated in terms of their individual contributions to the conservation and development of biodiversity, the role played specifically by woods and forestry management with regard to biodiversity and sustainable land use, and the patterns of conflict that exist due to competing land uses. Attention is also paid to concrete governance approaches in protected areas against the background of competition for land and the question of how experience gained in protected areas can be transferred to ‚normal‘ landscapes. The paper also provides basic definitions relevant to the topic. Finally, from the perspective of various disciplines, the working group calls for policy and planning actors to support the sustainable development of protected areas in Germany. Here the focus is not only on a stringent strengthening of the status of protected areas on the federal level combined with appropriate administrative structures, but also on promoting improved quality assurance and quality development of the protected areas. Of further relevance to these calls for action is the field of tension between the necessity for strengthened process protection and the intensification of agriculture in the context of EU Common Agricultural Policy.

Local acceptance and the resolution of conflicts that arise from conservation objectives are important tasks for the successful management of large protected areas. This paper focuses on the distinct genesis of acceptance research for German large protected areas compared to the global context where the comprehensive term “park-people relationships” prevails. Using multiple tasks and roles assigned to national parks and biosphere reserves, we illustrate the overall diversity of conflict potential. Four explorative case studies, based on media analysis and selected expert interviews, are used to elaborate on the individual local conditions that foster conflict or co-existence in Germany. Berchtesgaden National Park is currently mainly free of conflicts, but unforeseen events such as barkbeetle infestations could unsettle the situation. On the contrary, private land ownership and conflicts over zoning in the Senne-Teutoburger Wald-Eggegebirge region have halted plans to establish a national park. In the Bliesgau Biosphere Reserve, conflicts arose around conflicting land uses and overlapping planning responsibilities during the designation process, while in the Pfälzerwald Biosphere Reserve region, the development of renewable energies – mainly wind turbines – have shown to bear a specific conflict potential. The paper concludes with suggestions related to spatial and environmental planning, such as widening the mainly local focus on “acceptance” to active stakeholder management, including integrated, adaptive management approaches, in the sense of the term park-people relationships.