Strategic Spatial Planning in European City-Regions: Parallel Processes or Divergent Trajectories? (NIRSA) Working Paper Series No. 60

Drawing on recent experiences of strategic spatial planning in two city-regions in Europe, the paper seeks to challenge dominant narratives of the emergence of strategic spatial planning as a uni-dimensional process of policy convergence. Recognising a need for fine-grained analysis of practices of spatial planning in diverse territorial and institutional contexts, the paper presents a framework for contextualised comparative analysis, identifying multiple levels of differentiation. The application of this comparative framework is subsequently illustrated with reference to the two city-regions of Dublin and Erfurt. The paper concludes with an outline of an agenda for further research