Abstract
Contemporary evaluations of urban growth management (UGM) strategies often take the shape of quantitative measurements of land values and housing prices. In this paper, we argue that it is of key importance that these evaluations also analyse the policy formulation and implementation phases of growth management strategies. It is in these phases that the institutions and discourses are (trans)formed in which UGM strategies are embedded. This will enable us to better understand the conditions for growth management policies’ success or failure. We illustrate this point empirically with the case of demarcating urban areas in the region of Flanders, Belgium. Using the Policy Arrangement Approach, the institutional dynamics and discursive meanings in this growth instrument’s formulation and implementation phase are unravelled. More specifically, we explain how the Flemish strategic spatial planning vision of restraining sprawl was transformed into one of accommodating growth in the demarcation of the Antwerp Metropolitan Area, epitomised by two different meanings of the phrase “safeguarding the future.” In conclusion, we argue that, in Antwerp, the demarcation never solidified into a stable policy arrangement, rendering it largely ineffective. We end by formulating three recommendations to contribute to future attempts at managing urban growth in Flanders.
Highlights
Evaluating Growth ManagementCompact settlements are beneficial in terms of the cost of mobility and providing public services as well as safeguarding valuable agricultural land and nature
Despite a broad recognition in the literature that “implementation is critical” [22], contemporary evaluations of growth management strategies still mostly take the shape of quantified measurements of effects such as land values and housing prices, where it is often implicitly assumed that policy was implemented as it was intended
We argue that understanding the formulation and implementation phases of these spatial policy instruments is of key importance to gain insight into the conditions of success and failure of growth management strategies
Summary
Compact settlements are beneficial in terms of the cost of mobility and providing public services as well as safeguarding valuable agricultural land and nature. New contributions to the body of work generally suggest improvements in measurement methodology or add new case studies These quantitative evaluations often implicitly assume that growth management policies are executed as they were intended, after which effects can be measured. This aim is supported by occasional contributions to the literature that do at least recognize the importance of cultural factors and institutional settings on the formulation and implementation processes of urban growth measures After their statistical analyses of growth boundary effectiveness, Jun [12] and Gennaio, Hersperger and Bürgi [16] refer to the pertinence of political debates and circumstances on these policies, though they refrain from delving deeper into them.
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