How can comparative spatial planning studies contribute to European Union Cohesion?

The aim of this article is to identify the relevance and possible application of comparative spatialplanning research in the context of the EU’s territorial cohesion themes. Research questions formulated were as follows: (1) what are the key considerations and methods for making comparisons between spatial planning systems?; (2) how is the legal and institutional context addressed in comparative research?; and (3) how can the comparative research on spatial-planning systems that is (or can be) carried out translate into the objectives of EU policy on territorial cohesion? This article represents an overview in the above context. It first relates the objectives and specificities of cohesion policy as defined in the literature to the research challenges. It then identifies the main reasons (also noted in the literature) for spatial-planning issues to be made subject to comparison, the methodological challenges in so doing, and the specificity present as legal and institutional conditions are compared. A basis is in this way provided for an indication of the relationship pertaining between comparative research and the developmentof territorial cohesion.