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Complexity sciences have been long ago acknowledged to be useful at conceptualizing a variety of phenomena relevant to planning. Nevertheless, the actual mechanisms that will prove adequate to tackle complex planning issues are still under debate. Considering that in today’s so-called era of the Anthropocene such planning issues are more present and evident than ever, the need for further investigating the implications of complexity sciences into building planning approaches becomes very relevant. In this article, we use the concept of complex systems as an analytical framework challenging our understanding of planning and we argue in favour of a ‘complexity turn’ in planning through the adaptive rationale. We define the adaptive rationale as an additional, both normative and analytical, trajectory in planning theory, in the interplay between certainty and uncertainty. Finally, to assimilate this rationale into planning mechanisms capable to respond to contemporary social and ecological challenges, we call for issue-driven adaptive planning approaches conceptualized through normative sustainability and nourished by post-normal science.

This paper draws on recent debates on the multi-level governance of sustainable development to approach territories classified as protected areas. Based on original fieldwork carried out in the Parc naturel regional du Morvan, the paper examines the main governance challenges arising from the coexistence of natural areas and various embedded politico-administrative territories that have flourished in France in the last few decades. Considering spatio-temporal scalar articulation as a precondition for sustainable governance, it is argued that the mismatch observed between natural areas and inter-territorial institutions, situated at various spatial scales, incarnates a complex territorial mosaic whose pieces lack the necessary articulation required to foster sustainability.multi-level governance, state rescaling, sustainable development, territories, protected areas, regional parks, Morvan, France,