From conformance to performance? A comparative analysis of the European Union territorial policy trends in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

As several Western Balkans countries aspire to become members of the European Union (EU) in the (near) future, it is interesting to explore to what extent EU territorial trends are adopted in both the official national regulations and spatial planning practice. To do so, we: 1) screen EU territorial policies to elucidate the trends and principles of territorial development, 2) analyse the contents of spatial plans in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 3) compare the practical application of the principles such as decentralisation, diffusion of power, subsidiarity, multi-actorship, synergy, transparency, citizen participation, coordinated action (among various disciplinary bodies), and holistic strategies. The findings show the ineffectiveness of declaratively adopted EU territorial trends against place-based territorial policy approaches.

Urban Strategies for Dense and Green Zurich:From Healthy Neighbourhoods towards Healthy Communities?

“…In doing so, we differentiate two main types of meta-trends in healthy urban development: topical and procedural. Informed by the authors' previous research related to both topical meta-trends (Cairns & Tunas, 2022;Tan et al, 2021) and procedural meta-trends (Perić et al, 2021;Perić, 2014;De Blust et al, 2021;De Blust et al, 2019), and using the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN, 2015) as the main pillars to structuring the overview -in particular SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 15 (life on land) and SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals) -we identify the following topical and procedural meta-trends: 1) topical: a) green city, b) climate adaptation and mitigation, c) densification/infill development, d) resilience, and e) sustainable development; and 2) procedural: a) communication, b) cooperation, c) coordination, d) participation, and e) governance.…”