Citizen participation is a central element of contemporary urban planning and is an integral part of programs such as urban development funding. Yet in practice, participation in these processes is often limited to a small percentage of urban society. Dominant explanatory approaches primarily refer to structural and socioeconomic factors influencing the willingness to participate. In contrast, this paper takes a social science’s perspective on participation that builds on Alfred Schütz’s theory of the lifeworld and its constituting structures of relevance. According to this sociological theory, participation and non-participation are understood as practices situated in the lifeworld, structured by subjective perceptions, biographical experiences, and meaning. This paper is based on empirical results from narrative interviews with residents of two neighbourhoods in Leipzig, Germany (“Zentrum Süd“ and “Südvorstadt“), which were analysed by using the „documentary method“. Based on these findings, the paper calls for a critical reflection on the prevailing planning and participation paradigm and its (self-)legitimisation against the backdrop of logics, ambivalences, and questions of everyday life. It thus adopts an “untimely“ perspective challenges current convictions.
Conventional comprehensive planning has increasingly been criticized for its limited capacity to respond to rapid urban change, socio-economic complexity, and the growing need for flexible and implementation-oriented spatial strategies. In this context, Strategic Spatial Planning (SSP) has emerged as a major reference point in contemporary planning debates. In Türkiye, however, the shift toward upper-scale planning has not produced a coherent Strategic Spatial Planning framework. Instead, upper-scale planning has become fragmented between two different instruments: the Strategic Plan, which introduces vision and policy orientation but remains weak in spatial content, and the Environmental Plan, which provides a spatial framework but operates using rigid, hierarchical, and insufficiently strategic logic. The paper examines this institutional and conceptual fragmentation in the Turkish planning system. It argues that the main problem of upper-scale planning in Türkiye is not simply the weakness of a single planning instrument, but the separation of strategic and spatial capacities across two different plan types. Upper-scale planning in Türkiye is divided between strategy without space and space without strategic flexibility or governance capacity. Building on this diagnosis, the paper proposes a Strategic Spatial Planning model for Türkiye that selectively integrates the strengths of both instruments while avoiding their recognized weaknesses.
Acceptance of technological innovations is commonly conceptualised as an individual attitude towards new technologies. However, this paper is based on an investigation of how acceptance emerges in the context of rural transformation regions and how it relates to everyday experiences of service provision and infrastructure. Empirically, the study draws on an exploratory mixed-methods design combining qualitative pre-studies with a standardized survey conducted in Lusatia, Germany, focusing on the introduction of autonomous delivery robots. The findings suggest that acceptance cannot be understood as a binary endorsement or a stable individual disposition. Instead, it appears as a gradual and context-dependent resource that is mobilised differently across constellations of public services, infrastructure and future expectations. Positions within subjective service provision contexts explain less the level of acceptance than its relational configuration. The paper therefore proposes to conceptualise acceptance not primarily as an attitude towards technology, but as a socially embedded resource shaped by spatial, social and temporal contexts of public service provision.
Building on debates on Left-behind Places, the Digital Divide, social infrastructure, and Smart Rurality, this paper examines to which extend digitalisation mitigates or reproduces perceived regional inequalities and so can be seen as a facet in the identification of left-behindness. Using the example of public schools in Thuringia, Germany, the authors analyse whether and to what extent government investments in digital infrastructures and the perceived level of digitalisation contribute to a convergence in perceived levels of territorial recognition. The empirical basis consists of 17 semi-structured interviews with school leaders across Thuringia, complemented by quantitative data from a statewide survey of all public schools. The findings reveal delayed and fragmented digitalisation trajectories in which schools, particularly in rural areas consistently experience themselves as deprioritised. Feelings of being “years too late” translate into perceptions of political marginality. This emotionality emerges from protracted equipment processes, fragile support structures, and selective prioritisation. We argue that digitalisation in public schools functions as a significant indicator of territorial recognition and can be understood as an institutional manifestation of such emotions, thereby making left-behind narratives empirically traceable.
Structurally weak rural regions are currently facing growing (infra)structural problems and gaps in public services. This clouds the future prospect, and many, especially young people, are moving away. In a research project, we examined innovative. civic initiatives that can nevertheless be found in such regions. We asked ourselves what difference these initiatives make to the local quality of life and to social interaction in the local area, and whether they can bring about positive change in their regions. Based on their characteristics, our case studies from six federal states can be described as Social Places. The effects observed show that Social Places have innovative potential and can improve both the material and social quality of life in the local area. They create an enhanced set of options for the local population, even though these options are only partially used. But even in this case, innovative Social Places serve as laboratories for new ideas, offering people the opportunity to take action themselves, to network, and to work together toward a desired future for their region.
This paper examines the Bavarian cycling conflict (2017-2023) as a planning-related spatial conflict, using an agonistic lens and focusing on the concept of agonistic agency. While agonistic theory has gained prominence in planning debates, empirical applications remain limited. Addressing this gap, the study develops five indicators to operationalise agonistic agency and applies them to a qualitative case study based on interviews, documents and media sources. The analysis traces how the conflict unfolded across multiple interrelated arenas, including planning, protest, electoral, direct-democratic, legal and media arenas. The findings show that agonistic agency emerges unevenly and relationally through cross-arena dynamics. Civil society mobilisation played a central role in politicising planning inaction and shifting the conflict into alternative arenas. The case highlights the importance of meta-conflicts about conflict recognition and processing, demonstrating that democratic contestation is shaped not only by substantive issues but also by struggles over how and where conflict is negotiated. The paper contributes to planning theory by empirically grounding agonistic concepts and by proposing an arena-sensitive perspective on conflict dynamics in socio-ecological transformations.
Increasing conflicts over land use and the goal of sustainable urban development are bringing inter-municipal strategies into sharper focus. Binding and sufficiently complex cooperation structures are key to effectively managing urban development. This paper analyses which configurations of framework conditions at the problem, actor and institutional level favour the formation of such structures. The analysis is based on the Institutional Collective Action (ICA) Framework and evaluates data from a nationwide survey using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Three configurations can be distinguished: (1) tension – municipalities with strong land pressure that use cooperation to relieve pressure and coordinate urban development; (2) leeway – municipalities with untapped potential that offer land inter-municipally and develop it strategically; and (3) synergy – municipalities that are closely integrated into regional and supra-regional structures. The results show that actors capable of acting and a fair balance between the parties involved are key prerequisites for successful inter-municipal cooperation. Finally, practical, conceptual and methodological implications for the promotion and research of inter-municipal cooperation structures in the field of settlement area development are discussed.
Municipal capacity to act in addressing social heterogenization is increasingly dependent on structural interdependencies within multi-level governance. Using the East German medium-sized city of Halle (Saale) as a case study, this paper examines how issues of social heterogenization and participation are addressed at the local level, in light of the city’s context-specific development and its dependence on higher governance levels. While the local turn discussed in the literature often emphasises the autonomous scope of action of cities, the analysis shows how local action in Halle (Saale) is constrained as that of a post-transformational, financially weak municipality dependent on external funding. Based on 22 qualitative interviews, it is reconstructed how the municipality, in cooperation with local non-state actors, organises long-term work in the context of temporary funding structures and dependency within multi-level governance. The city is capable of acting through early network formation and the advocacy work of local intermediary organisations. However, this capacity is based on a precarious economy of chained funding and unpaid labour, which leads to the exhaustion of local structures. The paper concludes that under current conditions, a persistent “stop-and-go” pattern of social policy interventions emerges.
Municipal planning is a multidimensional decision-making process. Within this process, transparency is understood not only as access to information, but also includes the disclosure of evaluation standards, decision-making logic, and procedural steps. This paper examines the role and interactions of transparency in the municipal planning process from the perspective of the actors involved. Based on 19 guided expert interviews and a focus group, understandings, practices, and ambivalences of transparency are reconstructed qualitatively using four dimensions. The study also provides a qualitative contribution with a causal loop diagram of transparency, thereby highlighting spatial decision-making and procedural practices. The results show that transparency is considered necessary, but its implementation remains context-dependent and limited by resources, interests, and strategic considerations, and therefore only occurs selectively, while evaluations can help to structure transparency, make it measurable, and further develop decision-making processes. The paper makes an empirical contribution to planning research by conceptualizing transparency as a multidimensional governance practice and highlighting its organizational tensions. In addition, the opportunities offered by ex-post process evaluations in spatial decision-making processes are discussed, and impetus is provided for the integration and further development of evaluation research in this area.
The redistribution of street space plays a central role in urban and transport planning. In this context, Tactical Urbanism offers a flexible and participatory approach to testing out street space design. However, redesigns are often associated with lengthy administrative processes and a lack of acceptance. Digital participation and visualisation methods with virtual reality can help to visualise redesign before implementation. This article brings Tactical Urbanism together with virtual reality technologies and analyses the use of 'digital Tactical Urbanism' based on the redesign of a station forecourt. Based on an online survey, Tactical Urbanism measures were developed, inserted as 3D models in 360 degrees photos of the forecourt and could be experienced interactively in virtual reality glasses. Interviews were then conducted with public transport users and administrative experts to explore the opportunities, limitations and framework conditions of Tactical Urbanism in combination with virtual reality for planning processes. The results of the interviews show that the virtual reality world promotes an immersive experience of the redesign and motivates participation in planning processes. In the future, digital Tactical Urbanism could support street design, particularly in sensitive and conflict-ridden public spaces.
Suburban areas have significant potential for densification to address housing shortages, yet municipal planning departments often exhibit inertia in fully exploiting this potential. Consequently, private developers have increasingly driven suburban densification initiatives, becoming key actors. Despite their growing influence, the strategic behaviour of developers remains poorly understood. This study investigates the types of developers involved in suburban densification and their strategic decisions through a case study of Dortmund, Germany. Document analysis and semi-structured interviews reveal four key developer types: Entrepreneurial Builders, Land Developer-Investors, Property-Improvers and Owner-Occupier Developers. The different strategies of each developer type are dictated by the specific resource configuration, demonstrating a fundamental dichotomy: Entrepreneurial Builders and Land Developer-Investors depend heavily on market-dependent resources while in contrast, Property-Improvers and Owner-Occupier Developers leverage relationship-dependent resources like political networks. The findings indicate that developers’ resource dependencies fundamentally dictate densification outcomes, concluding that development emerges as a market-driven process shaped by developers’ strategic actions. This paper clarifies developer heterogeneity in suburban densification by empirically linking an established developer typology with specific resource management configurations.
For socially disadvantaged people, public mobility services are a basic prerequisite for social participation. In local politics and public transport planning, issues of mobility-related social disadvantage and the socio-spatial differentiation of participation opportunities have to date received little attention as an approach to reduce social inequalities in cities. This study aims to provide a suitable basis for such an approach. By undertaking a spatial GIS analysis, GTFS timetable data was intersected with socio-spatial data on 100x100-metre grid cells to obtain a high-resolution picture of mobility-related inequalities in Cologne, Germany. Although no evidence of a structural mobility-related under- or overprovision of individual population groups was found, the results show that 31 % of Cologne’s population live in urban areas that have an increased potential risk of mobility-related exclusion due to a critical combination of characteristics, including below-average public transport provision and an above-average proportion of the population receiving social benefits. Finally, a total of 49 spatial risk clusters were identified and described in the study area, enabling an individual characterisation of the affected areas and hence providing a possible basis for the development of specific solution strategies as part of further research.
Land is a resource that is worth protecting due to its function as a carrier for the functions of the ecosystem, recreation, climate regulation and others. The persistently high, unsustainable use of land for settlement and transport areas should therefore be limited or halted with the help of various environmental targets, such as the 30-X hectare target by 2030 or the net-zero land take target by 2050. These targets are analysed. It becomes clear that the targets represent a vision for the future that is not very practicable, as there is a lack of concrete accounting models for implementation to date. Finally, a land compensation model is presented that is able to operationalise the environmental targets and can contribute to a concrete and practicable strategy.
