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Abstract: Open-space preservation is a planner''s issue that is constantly debated, in particular on the success of the implemented instruments. Assessments of policy effectiveness face many methodological problems that are briefly discussed here. We choose to analyse the contribution of Dutch policies to open-space preservation by comparing actual land-use developments within different restrictive planning regimes. The presented analysis differs from comparable efforts that usually rely on census statistics through its use of local-level geographical data and spatial analysis techniques. Our approach has the advantage of being able to analyse the impact of spatially explicit regional zoning regulations. In addition to comparing regions with strict and less strict regimes, this paper also assesses the importance of another open-space characterisation. The latter refers to a distinction in agriculturally shaped and exploited landscapes and natural areas. We conclude the analysis with a discussion on possible spatial planning implications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: An integral part of post-socialist transformation under the Washington Consensus has been the privatisation of previously state owned and/or co-operative farms. In many instances, there have been attempts at ‘turning back the clock’ to pre-War conditions, including land ownership structures. Frequently, the result has been the division of large, economically efficient units into numerous, small and economically barely viable private plots. Following accession to the European Union, these re-constituted peasant-scale structures pose a major challenge to the Union’s agricultural policy. As this paper demonstrates, a simple transfer of western European practices, such as land consolidation, is not possible. The particular legacies of the communist system have given land ownership particular values, legitimacy and personal identity, and emotional bonds. Simple technocratic solutions, as applied in the West earlier, are thus not feasible. Consequently, the paper points out, new forms and instruments of tackling disadvantageous agricultural structures need to be found. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Central European agricultural land ownership is fragmented. An instrument that is particularly suited for solving the land fragmentation problem is land banking. Although the potential of land banking is acknowledged, details on the actual use prove to be hard to fill in. In Western Europe, a long-standing tradition on land banking provides insight into these questions and the options that are at hand. This article elaborates on the role of privatisation in the emergence of land fragmentation in Central Europe, the question whether it must qualified as being negative and what choices fragmentation poses to governmental intervention. With this description in mind, the basic principle of land banking is described, as well as land banking initiatives in Central Europe and past experience from Western Europe. From this empirical description, a number of operational issues are derived that demand political choices. The article concludes with a discussion on the challenge of Central European land fragmentation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Urban and regional planning is a strategic policy making process responding to the big challenges of our time. • Pleas for more adaptivity when making plans have resulted in a hesitation to act even in countries with a strong planning tradition. • This paper shows that the degree of adaptivity can differ between topics, geographical scales and time spans. • The case of the Dutch IJsselmeerpolder project illustrates how long-term decisions enable learning cycles of short-term decisions. • The land use challenges of our time need the stability of main concepts for the long term that are pragmatically implemented Strategic spatial planning is a governance practice pursuing coordinated improvement of mobility, housing, food production and other functions with a spatial impact. The institutions in this practice marry long-term thinking in the light of societal challenges with strategic action. These activities are intertwined, visionary and pragmatic at the same time. The currently prevalent association within strategic planning of long-term polical determination with rigid, top-down blueprints has prompted reduced national and regional planning efforts in the Netherlands and other European countries. Adaptivity and resilience within planning processes are promoted as novel and more suitable ways of steering spatial conditions within societies today. Adaptive is defined as 'being open for reconsideration'. Choices that were considered good yesterday, may need to be reconsidered tomorrow. The notion of adaptivity in planning, and the desirability of it, needs more nuance. Because, (1) Do changing long-term perspectives imply a need for adaptivity in the strategies used? (2) To which precise aspects of deliberate strategies can adaptivity apply? (3) Does the pursuit of adaptivity require a new planning approach, as is often claimed? We applied these questions within a critical case study: the creation of the Dutch IJsselmeerpolders, prototypes of rigid rather than adaptive planning, a strategy pursued for over 50 years. Despite radically shifting long-term perspectives, the governance practice of plan-making appears to have been capable of serving evolving purposes. Within this masterplanned mega-project we identify five forms of adaptivity associated with different geographical and time scales. We conclude that an enduring strategic governance effort can support shifting long-term perspectives when it is applied pragmatically with regard to selected topics. Rigidity and adaptivity are equally indispensable and inevitable for strategic action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]