On behalf of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) and the International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP) we would like to invite you to a lecture by
ProfessorDanuta Hübner
Space and Place as Integrating Factors in Policy-Making: New Models of Territorial Governance in Europe
which will take place at the Institut Supérieur d'Urbanisme et de Rénovation Urbaine
at 10:30 a.m. on Friday 5th October 2012 in Brussels.
Venue:
Institut Supérieur d'Urbanisme et de Rénovation Urbaine
rue d'Irlande 57, 1060 Saint-Gilles, Brussels.
AESOP and IFHP wish to express word of gratitude to the co-organizers of the 3rd Lecture – Instituts Saint Luc Bruxelles and especially to Institut Supérieur d'Urbanisme et de Rénovation Urbaine (ISURU) in Brussels.
We warmly invite both the AESOP and IFHP communities to join the lecture and the roundtable workshop. We are very interested in hearing your input at the event!
Please register to the event. There is no registration fee.
Download your invitation here. Please send our poster to your colleagues and students.
This is the third event in the Lecture Series by well-known planners, policy-makers and other ‘urban thinkers’, both academics and practitioners, which is being organised by AESOP and IFHP in the framework of respectively the Silver Jubilee (2012) and Centenary (2013). The lecturers in the series have been asked to present their ideas on ‘new thinking’ and a ‘new vision’ for planning and territorial development. The aim is to find answers to present-day and emerging challenges that are being faced by planners and by planning – as a modern, broad discipline in our complex and dynamic society. The lecture will be rounded off with a question and answer discussion with the audience.
The lecture will be followed by a roundtable workshop where invited experts engage in a debate with participants on a number of issues related to territorial governance, particularly with respect to Europe’s urban areas.
The lecture
Governance is a tool for managing development, which always has a distinct territorial dimension. Obviously ‘development’ is not necessarily synonymous with ‘growth’, but needs to be defined as an ‘improvement of quality of life’ in social, economic and environmental terms.
Governance has become increasingly multi-level and multi-actor in Europe. But how do we deal with this phenomenon in territorial practice?
At one scale, it is impossible to define territorial policies and conceptualize territorial development without recognizing that the most powerful driving forces of development are located in the cities, or are these cities themselves. Given this, what role will cities play in the territorial governance of regions and national states?
At another scale, many Europeans are turning back to the perceived comfort of the national state. They feel distant from ‘Europe’ as the complexities of the governance of the financial crisis or the even more fundamental crisis of our model of democracy, seems increasingly removed from and irrelevant to contemporary society. This underlines the urgency of finding new models of territorial governance, models that reflect the realities of new social, economic and environmental goals and challenges.
Professor Hübner, as an academic, Parliamentarian and former European Commissioner for Regional Development, has a broad knowledge and experience in the field of territorial development. She will present her vision of the possible future of territorial governance at different spatial scales. What are the most important challenges in this context? What solutions are possible?
The roundtable workshop
Territorial and governmental structures across Europe are extremely diverse and complex. Is there sufficient understanding of these structures and their modus operandi? The future development of these structures can be investigated by asking questions such as:
- As processes of territorial integration connect spaces and places in such a way that traditional administrative containers no longer match spatial structures,
- How can we deal with the different spatial dimensions at the regional and national scales (bearing in mind that what ‘regional’ is in one country is ‘national’ in another: e.g. the German state Nordrhein-Westfalen is roughly the same size as the Netherlands)?
- The city is clearly emerging as the most important and powerful spatial entity. As most European cities have become part of wider city-regions, what is the potential of such regions? How can territorial development be guided? Will cooperation between municipalities suffice or do we need other governance models that include key agents of territorial change such as transport and service providers, which are increasingly privatised all over Europe?
- In what way does local/regional/national and transnational strategic planning incorporate the internationalisation of business, cultures, people, flows, etc.? What steering capacities are left and how can these be deployed?
- How do major facilities (e.g. airports and other mega-infrastructure) in one country affect local development policies in another? How can this best be addressed? Is there a need for consultation, coordination or even cooperation?
A discussion of such issues could help us to answer questions such as:
- Are there generic principles of territorial governance which, in a very diverse Europe, that can be identified?
- Are there any possible common tools of planning and multi-level territorial governance to assist the diversity of governance?
- How can we improve the management of emerging synergies of cross-border and transnational cooperation?
The lecture will be followed by a roundtable workshop where invited experts engage in a debate with participants on a number of issues related to territorial governance, particularly with respect to Europe’s urban areas.
Roudtable workshop MODERATOR: David EVERS (Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency)
Panelists: Dimitri CORPAKIS (EC, DG Research & Innovation), Ole DAMSGAARD (NORDREGIO), Philippe DOUCET (ISURU & ULB), Christian SVANFELDTand Władysław PISKORZ (EC, DG Regio), Emmanuel MOULIN (URBACT), Angelika POTH-MÖGELE (Council of European Municipalities and Regions)
Programme:
10:00-10:30 Registration
10:30-11:30 Lecture by Professor Danuta Hübner
11:30-12:00 Discussion
12:00-13:30 Lunch Break
13:30-15:00 Roundtable workshop: Perspectives for Territorial Governance in Europe
15:00-15:30 Conclusions
The lecture and discussion between Professor Hübner and the participants will be transmitted live online on both the AESOP and IFHP websites.
We would be delighted if you could accept this invitation to both lecture and roundtable workshop.
