Retrospect and prospect: from a new dark age to a new dawn of planning enlightenment

Abstract

This is a summary of the Editorial of the 25th Anniversary Special Issue of European Planning Studies. The editorial summarizes three representative articles from planners and economic policy actors published in 1993, the first year of publication of the journal. These write of threats and possibilities from privatized planning, from the European Single Market and the prospects for regional innovation policy. In the second part, nine papers are summarized. These range from an exegesis of the Anthropocene, the rise of populism and the transition in neoliberalist planning, and migration as a city planning issue in European cities. Other papers then analyse aspects of evolutionary change upon city and region policy and process dynamics. Finally a group of papers explore the rise of creative cities, 4.0 era industry and services and the role of 'starchitects' in city renewal as well as 4.0 digital settlements.

From Planning the Port/City to Planning the Port-City: Exploring the Economic Interface in European Port Cities

“…Hence, one can reflect on the second part of our research question, the pro-active part aimed at practical (policy) advice (Cooke, 2018). First, for numerous reasons it is understandable that in many port cities, during last decades, (semi-)private port authorities were created.…”

“…Although there are exceptions in studies applying these ideas (cf. for port studies Vance, 1970), this third perspective is still little touched upon, especially towards practical (policy) advice (Cooke, 2018), and hence a promising starting point to develop our visualization method.…”

“…By questioning the (biased) view of the port city, this chapter situates itself within a broader discussion within spatial planning (Cooke, 2018;Gleye, 2015) and human and economic geography (Boggs & Rantisi, 2003;Paasi, 2010), which arguably can be related to the 'relational turn'. Also, for port cities, this relational turn first was called upon (cf.…”

“…Therefore, this chapter's research question is: Is there a better way to understand the port-city interface, and, if so, what policy recommendations does this imply? With this (pro-active) research question, this chapter (modestly) tries to engage in another important contemporary planning debate, namely how to be critical (realist) (Archer et al, 2013;Naess, 2015), first, but second also be able to (re)construct practical advice and foremost action in the spatial planning field (Cooke, 2018;Jessop, 2018)?…”