The European Spatial Approach: The Role of Power and Knowledge in Strategic Planning and Policy Evaluation

Abstract

This article presents a discussion about an emerging area of evaluation discourse, the ‘European spatial approach’. It examines the current policy framework at the European-wide level by exploring the alternative planning and public policy paradigms that underpin the case for rationality within this framework. By using such a theoretical review, the article seeks to argue that the current deployment of evaluation within strategic spatial policy and planning is poorly understood, and further work is needed to develop an understanding of the role of power and knowledge in rationality, and in particular the role they play within the pluralist models of evaluation that are emerging within the wider EU policy processes. This is illustrated by specific evaluation experiences within the EU Trans-European Transport Networks and Structural Funds.