The Spatial Politics of Spatial Representation:Relationality as a Medium for Depoliticization?

This paper explores the interplay between the spatial politics of new governance landscapes and innovations in the use of spatial representations in planning. The central premise is that planning experiments with new relational approaches become enmeshed in spatial politics. The case of strategic spatial planning in Denmark reveals how fuzzy spatial representations and relational spatial concepts are being used to depoliticise strategic spatial planning processes and to camouflage spatial politics. The paper concludes that, while relational geography might play an important role in building consensus, it plays an equal important role in supporting current neoliberal transformations of strategic spatial planning