Claire Colomb

Protest and Resistance in the Tourist City

Across the globe, from established tourist destinations such as Venice or Prague to less traditional destinations in both the global North and South, there is mounting evidence that points to an increasing politicization of the topic of urban tourism. In some cities, residents and other stakeholders take issue with the growth of tourism as such, as well as the negative impacts it has on their cities; while in others, particular forms and effects of tourism are contested or deplored. In numerous settings, contestations revolve less around tourism itself than around broader processes, policies and forces of urban change perceived to threaten the right to ‘stay put’, the quality of life or identity of existing urban populations. This book for the first time looks at urban tourism as a source of contention and dispute and analyses what type of conflicts and contestations have emerged around urban tourism in 16 cities across Europe, North America, South America and Asia. It explores the various ways in which community groups, residents and other actors have responded to – and challenged – tourism development in an international and multi-disciplinary perspective. The title links the largely discrete yet interconnected disciplines of ‘urban studies’ and ‘tourism studies’ and draws on approaches and debates from urban sociology; urban policy and politics; urban geography; urban anthropology; cultural studies; urban design and planning; tourism studies and tourism management. This ground breaking volume offers new insight into the conflicts and struggles generated by urban tourism and will be of interest to students, researchers and academics from the fields of tourism, geography, planning, urban studies, development studies, anthropology, politics and sociology.

European Union Competition Policy and the European Territorial Cohesion Agenda: An Impossible Reconciliation? State Aid Rules and Public Service Liberalization through the European Spatial Planning Lens

The territorial and spatial planning impacts of European Union (EU) economic and competition policies have remained under-researched in the field of European spatial planning, in contrast to other EU policy fields. This briefing explores how two elements of the EU competition policy, the regulation of “state aid” and the liberalization of “services of general interest (SGI)”, have significant implications for the pursuit of the objective of territorial cohesion through spatial planning and territorial development policies at different scales. The paper first reviews the development of the concept of territorial cohesion in the EU discourse and policy agenda since the mid-1990s, as well as the contribution of public services (Services of General Interest, or SGI in EU jargon) to it. It, then, reviews how the EU state aid rules and liberalization policies affect the states ability to intervene (i) in support of sub-national territories which are lagging behind or suffering decline, and (ii) in the provision of public services across the national territory, specifically in peripheral regions or areas where the provision is not catered for by the market. The conclusion of the paper outlines the additional challenges to the pursuit of territorial cohesion in the EU posed by the post-2008 economic crisis and suggests avenues for future research.

Requiem for a lost Palast. ‘Revanchist urban planning’ and ‘burdened landscapes’ of the German Democratic Republic in the new Berlin

This paper discusses on the fate of the public buildings and public spaces inherited from the socialist era in contemporary Berlin, with a particular focus on one of the ‘burdened landscapes’ of the German Democratic Republic, the Spree Island (Spreeinsel). This site, due to its symbolic significance in the history of the city, has been the focus of complex architectural, political and cultural debates shaped by tensions between different collective memories and conflicting visions of what the new urban landscapes of reunified Berlin should be. The paper documents the fifteen‐year debate on the future of the Spreeinsel, in particular the controversies surrounding the demolition of the Palast der Republik and the proposed reconstruction of the Berliner Stadtschloss (Royal Castle). It is argued that the conflicts surrounding the site are at the intersection of two intermingled processes: on the one hand, the politics of collective memory and identity (re)construction through architecture and planning, on the other, the renegotiation of the social uses and public nature of a strategic inner‐city site in a market economy. The latter has become more prominent in recent years. Analyses of post‐socialist urban landscapes should consequently be embedded within a wide political economy approach casting light on the complex relationships between material processes of urban restructuring, the symbolic economy of the post‐Fordist city and the real and symbolic ownership of strategic inner‐city space.

Territorial Politics, Devolution and Spatial Planning in the UK: Results, Prospects, Lessons

Abstract This article critically analyses the debates which have unfolded in the aftermath of the Scottish independence referendum of 18 September 2014 concerning the constitutional arrangements of the UK as a plurinational state and the internal governmental structure of England. The debates unfolding in the UK reflect and illustrate two central themes in planning, territorial development and public policy. First, they highlight the contested distribution of power across multiple layers of government in states with an inherited centralized pattern of governance that are now facing strengthening regionalist and nationalist claims. Second, they illustrate the linked growth in the demand for new governance and strategic planning arrangements in large metropolitan areas with fragmented administrative and institutional boundaries. The article first discusses what the outcome of the Scottish referendum (and its aftermath) means for planning in Scotland. It then turns to the debates on devolution in the rest of UK which were stoked in the wake of the referendum, looking at the planning implications of further devolution in Northern Ireland and Wales, and at the possible consequences of the various options currently being aired to solve the ‘English question’. Finally, ongoing debates on decentralization to regions and city-regions in England are briefly considered.

A European Perspective on Anglo-Scottish Cross-border Cooperation: Lessons from EU-funded Territorial Cooperation Programs*

ABSTRACT The article aims to reflect on the development and prospects of cross-border cooperation between Scotland and England in a European perspective. Over the past 25 years the EU has supported specific programs of cooperation across the EU’s internal borders (INTERREG), which have allowed thousands of local and regional actors to work on common actions, projects or strategies to overcome long-standing processes of conflict, competition or lack of cooperation. The paper first discusses the added-value and shortcomings of these EU territorial cooperation initiatives, before considering recent developments and future options for cooperation across the Anglo–Scottish border. In capturing how the drive for local and regional actors within the EU to engage in trans-boundary cooperation is shaped by both the a priori existence of strong, historically-rooted cross-border relationships and by more pragmatic concerns to access new resources and policy ideas, the article goes on to examine how such motivations have played out across the Anglo–Scottish border. While acknowledging the benefits of trans-boundary co-operation, the article provides a more cautious assessment of the various barriers and asymmetries that can hinder cross-border co-operation and, in focusing on the area of spatial planning, highlights a particular challenge for economic and social collaborations across the Anglo–Scottish border. The article ends with a brief reflexion on the implications of the results of the 2016 Brexit referendum, before concluding with the most relevant lessons from European territorial cooperation initiatives for Anglo–Scottish cross-border cooperation.

European spatial research and planning, edited by Andreas Faludi

This book follows two previous volumes edited by Andreas Faludi (2002, 2007) for the US-based Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, which synthesised the state of the art of research and debates in European spatial planning for a North American audience. This third volume specifically takes stock of, and draws key results from, the research produced under the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network (ESPON), a pioneering pan-European research initiative in the field of spatial planning which involved over 600 researchers in 29 European countries over a period of five years (2002–2006). As the ESPON programme produced several thousand pages of research reports (all available on the ESPON website: www.espon.eu), an overview of the findings of the programme as a whole is very welcome for any researcher eager to understand recent developments in European spatial planning research. As with the previous two volumes, however, not all chapters in the book are accessible to a non-specialist audience unfamiliar with European spatial planning debates. A reader with little prior knowledge of the field might want to start with the contributions of Faludi, Robert and Lennert, and Böhme and Waterhout; the other thematic chapters will be of interest for researchers in geography, planning, public policy, regional and environmental policies. The publication of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) in 1999 – a set of non-binding guidelines for the spatial development of the European territory – brought to the fore the acute lack of European-wide spatial planning data, research and evidence. In this context a pan-European research programme, including the then 15 member states plus 14 other European countries, was set up for the period 2002–2006, funded by the EU regional policy budget with contributions from the member states. Faludi and Hague, and Hachmann provide an overview of the emergence, structure and transnational management of the ESPON research programme. One of the central themes running through the book is the notion of ‘evidence-based’ planning or policy making, since ESPON was set up with a view to inform policy developments at EU level. Whilst ESPON was a ‘‘groundbreaking programme that has advanced the cause of spatial planning within Europe’’, with ‘‘maps, indicators, and data [which] have made it possible to construct a credible narrative about the need for a territorial dimension in European policy-making’’ (p. 40), it has also been criticised for its limitations and shortcomings (Faludi, Hague and Hachmann). Recurring critiques revolve around the complex methodological-scientific issues arising from pan-European research (e.g. availability of data, comparative methodologies); the limited dissemination of Journal of Environmental Planning and Management Vol. 53, No. 5, July 2010, 677–679