European Spatial Planning Systems, Social Models and Learning

Abstract An underlying aim of European territorial cooperation initiatives, such as INTERREG, is that they will lead to mutual understanding and learning across national boundaries. However, the effect of mutual learning on national systems and policies of planning is uncertain. After all, spatial planning systems are deeply embedded in their socio-economic, political and cultural context, which can potentially constrain the scope for mutual learning. Moreover, planning systems may have a certain degree of path-dependency, such as the persistence of institutions and cultures. In this paper, we explore the relationship between planning systems and their context and assess the extent to which cooperation and learning might contribute to convergence in styles of planning in Europe, as well as why and how this might be taking place. We take as our context the prevailing social model or model of society, the collection of common social and cultural values. We examine and compare typologies of planning systems and typologies of social models and find a degree of correspondence between them. The examples of England and the Netherlands are used to illustrate this interdependence. However, they also reveal how planning systems and policies in different contexts are changing in similar ways, and perhaps even demonstrate a measure of convergence. In other words, external factors may be overriding or undermining the influence of the national social model. The implementation of planning reforms may be running ahead of wider changes in the social model.