The Conversion of Spatial Planning in Denmark: Changes in National and Regional Planning Policies and Governance Structures

ntaciones estructurales, funcionales y conceptuales durante las últimas dos décadas. El marco jerárquico de administración en el que las políticas y las prácticas del ordenamiento territorial solían llevarse a cabo fue ampliamente modificado después de una reforma del gobierno local implementada en 2007. Dicha reforma propició la revocación del nivel regional, lo que indujo el reescalamiento de las políticas, las funciones y las responsabilidades del ordenamiento territorial a los niveles municipal y nacional. A través del análisis de estos cambios estructurales, este artículo se sumerge en la reorientación de las políticas de ordenamiento territorial a diferentes escalas, en la evolución del rol de la ordenación del territorio en la gestión del crecimiento y del desarrollo, y en los cambios de las estructuras de gobernanza asociados a la ordenación del territorio en Dinamarca.Danish spatial planning has been increasingly subjected to significant structural, functional and conceptual reorientations over the past two decades. The comprehensive hierarchical framework wherein planning policies and practices used to operate became considerably modified after the implementation of a local government reform back in 2007. The reform abolished the county level, which implied the re-scaling of planning policies, functions and responsibilities to municipal and national levels. This situation brought about radical shifts concerning the implementation of land-use tasks and the performance of institutional arrangements within and beyond the planning system. Based on an analysis concerned with these structural changes, the paper delves into the reorientation of spatial planning in Denmark in terms of the evolving conception of planning policies at different territorial scales, the changing role of planning in catering to growth and development matters, and the shifting institutional arrangements associated with the planning domain.L’ordenació del territori a Dinamarca ha estat significativament sotmesa a reorientacions estructurals, funcionals i conceptuals durant les darreres dues dècades. El marc jeràrquic d’administració en què les polítiques i les pràctiques de l’ordenament territorial solien dur-se a terme fou àmpliament modificat després d’una reforma del govern local implantada el 2007. Aquesta reforma propicià la revocació del nivell regional, induint el reescalament de les polítiques, les funcions i les responsabilitats de l’ordenament territorial als nivells municipal i nacional. A través de l’anàlisi d’aquests canvis estructurals, aquest article s’immergeix en la reorientació de les polítiques d’ordenament territorial a diferents escales, en l’evolució del paper de l’ordenació del territori en la gestió del creixement i del desenvolupament, i en els canvis de les estructures de governança associats a l’ordenació del territori a Dinamarca

Redefinition of territorial scales and spatial planning in Denmark

The spatial planning system in Denmark has traditionally been known for its ‘comprehensive-integrated’ appeal characterized by a ‘formal’ rationality embedded within its systematic hierarchy of plans and institutions from national to local levels. In Europe, the purpose of planning systems of this kind has been to achieve ‘spatial coherence’ between levels of government and across territorial scales through the coordination and integration of policy sectors (horizontally) as well as jurisdictions and planning policies (vertically) shaping the management and articulation of spatial change. However, the Danish spatial planning system has been exposed to profound reorientations in recent years, as illustrated by the radical modification of its scope, its structure as well as its institutional and policy mechanisms. In the case of Denmark, a structural reform implemented in 2007 that changed the country’s political geography and its existing intergovernmental arrangements hence led to: i) the downward rescaling (from regional to municipal levels) of most functions and responsibilities related to spatial planning; ii) the upward rescaling (from metropolitan to national level) of spatial planning functions associated with the Metropolitan Region of Copenhagen; and iii) the revocation of regional planning as well as the institutional dismantling of the metropolitan level. Based on these series of changes, this paper aims at elucidating how different governments in power over the last 20 years have interpreted the planning system based on the adoption and adaptation of specific strategies (legal and/or spatial) that seek to articulate the different levels that comprise the planning system in one way or another. The impact that stems from the implementation of these strategies (whether they also remain as speculations or intentions) is that there is an increasing tendency to indirectly redefine conventional territorial scales. In order to depict such redefinition, this paper attempts to carry out an analysis of: i) the strategic spatial role attributed to each level of planning; ii) how each territorial scale is redefined as a result of the changing spatial relationships occurring between the planning levels.Peer Reviewe

Impact of Structural Reforms on Planning Systems and Policies: Loss of Spatial Consciousness?

This paper argues that a planning system that allows its policies and practices to gradually lose spatial consciousness and spatial coordination capacities within and across different levels of planning administration is less likely to make national and regional plans and strategies matter or have a say in future spatial development processes. The reasoning behind this argument stems from the case of Denmark, where a structural reform that changed the country’s geographies of inter-governmental arrangements in 2007 significantly transformed the configuration and functioning of the national planning system. Originally designed to support the principle of equal development through spatial planning policies aimed at the promotion of equal access to public and private services across the national territory, the Danish planning policy framework has increasingly evolved towards expressing a lack of explicit spatial consciousness in its current plans and strategies. At the same time, the Danish planning system seems to reveal narrower measures of spatial coherence in terms of horizontal and vertical coordination and integration of sectors and policies within and across different levels of planning administration. Based on an analysis regarding the evolution of planning policies and an examination of the current governance landscape influencing planning practices at national and regional levels, the paper attempts to generate an understanding concerning how the underlying rationale and the institutional relations of Danish spatial planning have been reoriented over time