European Planning Research Articles

Planning Small Regions in a Larger Europe: Spatial Planning as a Learning Process for Sustainable Local Development

An enlarged Europe is addressing the challenge of territorial cohesion on the basis of a disciplinary and operative framework formed by a number of evolving documents and provisions to be applied and developed at different administrative and planning levels. Rapid and profound changes have occurred in previous decades as far as institutional framework, the role of actors and issues to be tackled are concerned, within a re-scaling process of territorial governance. In this context, small territories can take advantage of European funds, but experience a hard confrontation with the market economy and supra-local visions, use of resources and infrastructure projects. A decisive role, in many countries, has been gained by regional authorities, which must mediate among various territorial levels, institutions and actors involved in a multilevel governance process. The paper focuses on spatial and regional/territorial planning processes among the European dimension, Member States and regions, on the basis of a case study conducted in Northern Italy. The aim is to determine the role of European spatial planning as a “learning machine” [Faludi, A. (2008) European Territorial Cooperation and Learning, disP 172, (1/2008), pp. 3–10.] able to support processes of mutual learning and cooperation, overcoming the attitude of compliance to upper level schemes and financial programmes rather than innovating usual procedures and territorial planning.

Crunching the numbers: The affordability of nutritious food for New Zealand children

AbstractAim: Good nutrition is vital to a growing child's health and development. It is unclear if New Zealand families are able to afford to provide meals that meet national nutritional guidelines for their children. The aim of the present study was to calculate the cost of meal plans, which include New Zealand European and Tongan food preferences and meet New Zealand national nutrition guidelines for children in three age groups (3–5, 5–10 and 13–14 years) in different regions of Auckland.Methods: Meal plan exemplars from New Zealand national Food and Nutrition Guidelines were used to define both the European plan and the Tongan plan for each age group. Meal ingredient prices were measured in shops in January 2008 within seven randomly chosen, ‘most deprived’ (decile 10) areas and seven ‘least deprived areas’ (decile 1) in the Auckland region.Results: The average annual cost of food for one child was, in New Zealand Dollars, $1472 (3–5 year old) to $4411 per year (13–14 year old) from supermarket pricings only. The Tongan adolescent ($3188) and 3–5 year olds' plans ($1665) were cheaper than their European equivalents ($4282, $1759, respectively). No difference was demonstrated between most and least deprived areas (P= 0.91). Large volume options were usually cheaper than small volume options.Conclusion: Providing diets for children that are nutritionally appropriate requires on average 33% of the child‐related component of New Zealand Government provisions for low socioeconomic families in 2007. New Zealand should consider further strategies to make children's meals more affordable for low‐income families.

Towards an Understanding of Erasmus Culinary Internship

The School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology's involvement in international mobility for culinary internships has experienced exponential growth over the past 5 years with the assistance of European Leonardo da Vinci and Erasmus funding for European placements. The main thrust behind the European Commission funding ventures for mobility (experiential learning) is to enhance students' cultural awareness, cultivate their language skills, and develop their professionalism in their fields of study. It is generally accepted that experiential learning in the workplace provides many learning opportunities for culinary students. In spite of the acceptance that experiential learning is a “good thing,” students in the field of culinary arts have never been the subject of any research to establish the benefits of experiential learning through culinary international internships. This article starts to address the abyss in knowledge by reviewing the European Commission's Mobility Action Plan as a process of developing Europe's education and training strategy. It examines the Lisbon Agenda and various reports such as the Copenhagen declaration and the Nice Council report (EU Commission, 2004b) to develop an understanding of the mechanisms driving culinary internships in the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology.

Harmonization of European Private Law: Out of Date: Out of Time?

It is rather alarming to see the zeal with which ambitious academics, appearing to crave for neo-Napoleonic legislative glory, are promoting the idea of a Code-for-Europe-that-dares-not to speak its name, excited with the opportunity, given to them by the Commission, to promote a vast European codification plan of Private law under the guise of the (Academic) Common Frame of Reference (CFR). The published first Draft of which, despite its claims of modernising European Private law and making it fit for the 21st century and beyond, is looking backwards to the, admittedly impressive for its time and socioeconomic conditions, Pandektenwissenschaft of the 19th century. Be that as it may, one cannot object to Europe offering, on a benign and voluntary basis, once again to enlighten the rest of the World on legal matters, and achieving a coherent and forward looking restatement of Private law in our Continent could certainly help. Unfortunately, the direction of the process of harmonization so far falls short of this ambition, for the reasons which I will now briefly set out.

Divergence and Convergence in Policy Meanings of European Environmental Policies: The Case of the Birds and Habitats Directives

The link between European environmental policies and spatial planning and decision-making in Member States is complicated and the subject of much debate among students of the European Union and the processes of Europeanization. This paper focus on policy meaning, and analyses the mechanisms of divergence and convergence that are at work in planning and decision-making practices in which the Birds and Habitats Directives are implemented. While many of the mechanisms are unconscious and unintentional and thus cannot be affected, others can be used intentional and strategically during the formulation and implementation of the policies.

European Public Health News * In support for the New Environment and Health Action Plan (EHAP) of EC * Message from the WHO Regional Director for Europe: Health in All Policies * Pandemic influenza preparedness and response planning * News from EUPHA--increasing our services to our members * On behalf of the Local organizing committee, ASPHER and EUPHA

We are pleased to provide you with interesting news from the key players in European public health. Our president, Stan Tarkowski, continues his efforts in the field of environment and health by supporting the New Environment and Health Action Plan (EHAP) of the European Commission. Zsuzsana Jakab, regional director of WHO/EURO emphasizes the intersectoral nature of public health by reflecting on WHO’s Health in All Policies. The European Commission DG SANCO reports on the planned revision on the pandemic influenza preparedness guidelines folowing the lessons learned from the 2009 to 2010 pandemic. Of course, some reflections on EUPHA and the upcoming 3rd European public health conference in Amsterdam this November are also included. # In support for the New Environment and Health Action Plan (EHAP) of EC {#article-title-2} Following the Second European Public Health Conference in 2009 and the WHO Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Parma 2010, which put the environmental health into the focus of public health in Europe, I am once more, on this column, drawing attention of EUPHA on this important public health issue. The reason of this return is in connection with the European Commission Report on the implementation of the ‘European Environment and Health Action Plan 2004–2010’ [Commission document SEC (2010) 387 final], the first edition of such an action plan of the European Commission. The EHAP identified 13 specific actions which are jointly implemented by the Directorates-General for Environment, Health and Consumers, Research and the Joint Research Centre. Furthermore, the EHAP is an ‘umbrella’ bringing together all the EU initiatives in the environment, health and research sectors designed to improve environmental health. EHAP targeted research on diseases, disorders and exposures. Under the EU Framework Programmes for Research, a number of projects have been designed to improve knowledge on links between environmental exposures and four priority diseases (childhood respiratory diseases, neuro-developmental disorders, cancer and endocrine disrupting effects). One …

Moderate pandemic, not many dead—learning the right lessons in Europe from the 2009 pandemic

It could have been very different (Table 1). Although it was clear, from an early stage, that the 2009 influenza pandemic was likely to be less severe than the 1918 ‘Spanish Flu’, which killed an estimated 50 million people,1 there was still much uncertainty among European authorities on how it might develop. View this table: Table 1 Positive features of the 2009 pandemic for Europe Three factors played a role in mitigating its impact. First, many of those in their mid-50s and above possessed cross-immunity from a similar virus that circulated before the 1957 pandemic.2 Hence, older people who account for over 90% of deaths from seasonal influenza were relatively spared. Those who died were mainly children and younger adults; among deaths reported to ECDC, about 80% were >65 years old. Second, along with Japan and China, Europe was the last industrialized region to be affected, enabling it to draw on the experience of North America, temperate countries in the Southern Hemisphere, and the one European country, the UK, that experienced a significant Spring/Winter wave. Therefore, the UK authorities were well placed to advise the rest of Europe what to expect, and what not to do. Its experience endorsed the guidance from the WHO and ECDC not to try to contain the uncontainable. Third, many European countries had worked intensively to strengthen their previously variable degree of pandemic preparedness. As a consequence, there were no disproportionate government reactions such as those in Mexico, Argentina and the Ukraine. The coordinated review mechanisms in some of the European plans also made it possible to adapt responses once the WHO declared the …

The European Company Law Action Plan Revisited: An Introduction

The European Company Law Action Plan of 2003 has been in the center of corporate law discussions in Europe for almost a decade. This introduction re-visits five of the main reform problems and outlines reform perspectives beyond the financial markets crisis. The five areas that the introduction re-examines are legal capital, corporate governance, one share/one vote, financial reporting, and corporate mobility. For the future, the introduction identifies as critical a mixed system of regulatory approaches, i.e. between market and regulation as well as between national regulation and European rules, a focus on adequate enforcement, and prudence in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

Cryogenic systems for LMJ cryotarget and HiPER application

AbstractFor the future, we have to develop new sources of energy. These new sources may be based on nuclear fusion with magnetic confinement (as with the ITER experiment) or with a new concept based on inertial confinement. The European community plans to build a facility (HiPER project) which is dedicated to reaching high gain with cryogenic targets, and to test the concepts of target mass production and rep rate shots. The cryogenic system for the 1stphase experiments in HiPER is based on the cryogenic system developed for the French facility Laser MegaJoule (LMJ). The latter must be modified and upgraded for direct drive targets. In particular the target must be protected from the radiation flux from the vacuum vessel by a thermal shroud. In addition, the LMJ system must be equipped with a thermal system to allow layering of the fusion fuel to take place. The new developments concern a leak tightness thermal shroud for direct drive and a fast shroud retractor able to allow the laser shot within few milliseconds.

Technical Brief – Factories of the Future: the contribution of ICT

Manufacturing is a significant component of Europe's economy and is facing environmental as well as globalisation challenges. Furthermore, manufacturing is severely hit by the current economic downturn. In late 2008, the European Commission launched the Factories of the Future (FoF) initiative, as part of the European Economic Recovery Plan, with the aim to boost industrial activity and help European manufacturing overcome the crisis strengthened and more competitive. The RD Revised 25 March 2010; Accepted 25 March 2010]

Beyond Lisbon: Soft European Spatial Planning

The EU territorial cohesion policy under the Lisbon Treaty implies strategic spatial planning, but the European Commission does not seem to be taking major initiatives in this matter. Cohesion policy as such is being challenged for not doing enough to enhance Europe's competitiveness and, while sustaining transfers to new Member States, there are proposals to “renationalize” the process. This goes to the heart of multi-level governance in the EU, an important vehicle of Europeanization. Assuming that this threat can be averted, spatial planners are still facing fundamental questions as to the nature of the European construct, in particular, the territoriality of nation-states and of the EU, and thus the very meaning of space. Is it a “hard” object to be marked, administered and defended or is space rather a “soft” category to be negotiated from case to case? A case is made for regarding soft spaces as shifting configurations within which real but shifting processes are taking place. These soft spaces require soft planning. The EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region provides an example. Building on it, the paper concludes with reflections on what soft spatial planning would mean in the pursuit of territorial cohesion under the Lisbon Treaty.

Experience and lessons from surveillance and studies of the 2009 pandemic in Europe

Surveillance and studies in a pandemic is a complex topic including four distinct components: (1) early detection and investigation; (2) comprehensive early assessment; (3) monitoring; and (4) rapid investigation of the effectiveness and impact of countermeasures, including monitoring the safety of pharmaceutical countermeasures. In the 2009 pandemic, the prime early detection and investigation took place in the Americas, but Europe needed to undertake the other three components while remaining vigilant to new phenomenon such as the emergence of antiviral resistance and important viral mutation. Laboratory-based surveillance was essential and also integral to epidemiological and clinical surveillance. Early assessment was especially vital because of the many important strategic parameters of the pandemic that could not be anticipated (the 'known unknowns'). Such assessment did not need to be undertaken in every country, and was done by the earliest affected European countries, particularly those with stronger surveillance. This was more successful than requiring countries to forward primary data for central analysis. However, it sometimes proved difficult to get even those analyses from European counties, and information from Southern hemisphere countries and North America proved equally valuable. These analyses informed which public health and clinical measures were most likely to be successful, and were summarized in a European risk assessment that was updated repeatedly. The estimate of the severity of the pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), and more detailed description by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in the risk assessment along with revised planning assumptions were essential, as most national European plans envisaged triggering more disruptive interventions in the event of a severe pandemic. Setting up new surveillance systems in the midst of the pandemic and getting information from them was generally less successful. All European countries needed to perform monitoring (Component 3) for the proper management of their own healthcare systems and other services. The information that central authorities might like to have for monitoring was legion, and some countries found it difficult to limit this to what was essential for decisions and key communications. Monitoring should have been tested for feasibility in influenza seasons, but also needed to consider what surveillance systems will change or cease to deliver during a pandemic. International monitoring (reporting upwards to WHO and European authorities) had to be kept simple as many countries found it difficult to provide routine information to international bodies as well as undertaking internal processes. Investigation of the effectiveness of countermeasures (and the safety of pharmaceutical countermeasures) (Component 4) is another process that only needs to be undertaken in some countries. Safety monitoring proved especially important because of concerns over the safety of vaccines and antivirals. It is unlikely that it will become clear whether and which public health measures have been successful during the pandemic itself. Piloting of methods of estimating influenza vaccine effectiveness (part of Component 4) in Europe was underway in 2008. It was concluded that for future pandemics, authorities should plan how they will undertake Components 2-4, resourcing them realistically and devising new ways of sharing analyses.

Expect the unexpected: a young academic's conference report: The 23rd AESOP Congress, Liverpool, 2009

The brand 'AESOP' stands for excellence in planning education in Europe. The 23rd AESOP congress in Liverpool certainly stood loyal to this legacy. However, for those young academics joining the AESOP family this year, the event will be remembered not only by its expected traits, but also for its unanticipated qualities. Across its 18 tracks, the 23rd congress gathered participants from far beyond the European planning schools that AESOP represents. Planning academics came from as far as China, Malaysia, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, USA, Tanzania and New Zealand (just to mention a few). Learning about planning issues from these countries along with European ones was the most unexpected and enriching experience. Considering our cultural diversity, even less expected was the immediate sense of belonging and the almost nonchalant ease in cross-national communication created at the event. Apart from individual presentations, some other congress events facilitating interactive knowledge exchange were of particular value. Meetings of the AESOP working groups, the Young Academics Network events and the PhD Workshop held immediately before the congress in the University of Manchester provided places for such gatherings. They made us realise that no matter how different our backgrounds and local contexts may be, no matter what languages we speak, dealing with similar issues and facing similar challenges gives us a sense of unity. Institutional fragmentation; the breakdown of old and the appearance of new planning networks; the increasing role of market forces in the spatial distribution of development; and complexity and change (Albrechts and Balducci, 2009) were just a few examples among the common issues to emerge in the 'Governance and participation' congress track to which my research led me. However, an increasing wealth of international perspectives on a single planning issue made the question 'how can we learn from each other?' even more significant. When discussing the issue of 'change', Prof. Louis Albrechts emphasised that 'a main challenge for planning is to develop the power to make [location and time specific] concepts travel, and to translate them into an array of practice arenas' (Albrechts, 2009). Across the diverse presentations at the 23rd AESOP Congress, I found a new form of cross-cultural research taking over. This was not intentional comparative research, but a form evolving as a result of freedom to travel, a sense of adventure, of prestige and economic migration: Americans researching Russian planning, Germans investigating participation in India, Yugoslavians studying the housing market in England, Malaysians moving to the UK only to study - Malaysia, Mexicans studying development in China for a Dutch university while living in India. And these were just a few researchers representing a rising generation of young planning academics. The future ability to 'make planning concepts travel' (as freely as we do) may lie in understanding the ways these researchers 'journey' from one culture to another in pursuit of an answer for a single research question; how they use several languages to make sense of 'local knowledge' coming from one neighbourhood; and how they bend theoretical concepts while unintentionally mixing cultures. Examining the influence of this new form of cross-cultural research on planning theory and practice may be the theme of some future AESOP event. …

Urban planning, colonial doctrines and street naming in French Dakar and British Lagos,c.1850–1930

ABSTRACT:The published literature that has thoroughly treated the history of European planning in sub-Saharan Africa is still rather scanty. This article examines French and British colonial policies for town planning and street naming in Dakar and Lagos, their chieflieux de colonisationin West Africa. It will trace the relationships between the physical and conceptual aspects of town planning and the colonial doctrines that produced these plans from the official establishment of these cities as colonial capitals in the mid-nineteenth century and up to the inter-war period. Whereas in Dakar these aspects reflected a Eurocentric meta-narrative that excluded African histories and identities, a glimpse at contemporary Lagos shows the opposite. This study is one of few that compares colonial doctrines of assimilation to doctrines of indirect rule as each affects urban planning.

La responsabilité sociale des entreprises, un projet européen en panne

L’Union européenne (UE) a développé une approche particulière de la responsabilité sociale en l’inscrivant dans les stratégies européennes de l’emploi et de la cohésion sociale, d’une part, et dans celles sur le développement durable, d’autre part. Ceci devait permettre de véhiculer le modèle social européen dans et hors UE. Le projet était d’explorer au travers d’un processus de dialogue inédit entre les institutions et la société civile les possibilités de dégager un consensus sur un cadrage de la responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise (RSE). L’objet de cette contribution est de montrer qu’il s’est produit un périlleux décrochage entre les institutions européennes, les entreprises et la société civile alors que la RSE pratiquée par les entreprises européennes allait se révéler un vecteur d’innovation sur le plan des relations professionnelles en devenant un objet de négociation collective transnationale et qu’elle allait être un puissant révélateur des limites de l’autorégulation de la question du travail sur le plan mondial.

Development of a Cryogenic Target Delivery System for HiPER

For the future, we have to develop new sources of energy. These new sources may be based on nuclear fusion with magnetic confinement (as with the ITER experiment) or with a new concept based on inertial confinement. The European community plans to build a facility (HiPER project) which is dedicated to reaching high gain with cryogenic targets, and to test the concepts of target mass production and rep rate shots. The cryogenic system for the 1st phase experiments in HiPER is based on the cryogenic system developed for the French facility Laser MegaJoule (LMJ). The latter must be modified and upgraded for direct drive targets. In particular the target must be protected from the radiation flux from the vacuum vessel by a thermal shroud. In addition, the LMJ system must be equipped with a thermal system to allow layering of the fusion fuel to take place.

Scottish Democracy in a Time of Nationalism

The Scottish National Party (SNP) controls Scotland's devolved government just as support for complete separation from the rest of Great Britain is growing. The party is cautious about strengthening the democratic basis of Scottish governance and its nationalism is paradoxical. The SNP recoils from popular sovereignty being an enthusiastic backer of the European Union's plans for a post-national Europe. It also gives similar endorsement to radical forms of multiculturalism. But for all its incoherence it stands a real chance of breaking up the 300-year union state mainly due to the failure of its opponents to devise a convincing British counter-narrative or indeed a form of broad nationalism that falls short of separation.

European Union climate plan impact on Poland “overestimated”

European Union climate plan impact on Poland “overestimated”

The EU as a realist actor in normative clothes: EU democracy promotion in Lebanon and the European Neighbourhood Policy

The article takes recent research on the difficulties for the EU in successfully promoting democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as its point of departure, with a specific focus on the European Neighbourhood Policy EU-Lebanon Action Plan. It is shown that, in spite of the fact that Lebanon does not present the same authoritarian institutions and character as most of the other countries in the region, the EU seems to have difficulties dealing with the political realities of Lebanon. This has to do with its consociational system and the existence of political elites in Lebanon, who see avoiding another breakdown of the political system as the decisive political issue. In addition, the existence of a ‘dual power’ situation, where two sources of authority are competing for power and legitimacy, constructs a Lebanese reality which the EU chooses to address by neglecting its own normative, democracy promotion ambitions. The article concludes that the vagueness and inconsistency of EU policies in Lebanon cannot only be explained by tactical considerations, but also imply that the EU pursues a realist agenda: in other words it is a realist actor dressed in normative clothes.

New Labour and the Planning System in Scotland: An Overview of a Decade

This paper reviews New Labour's planning legacy in Scotland to the Scottish National Party that was elected to office in May 2007. It highlights the significance of devolution in providing the political context and impetus for re-designing and reforming a more distinctive Scottish planning system. Significant factors also include the influence of European spatial planning principles and the technocratic–democratic tensions of the (New) Labour–Liberal Democratic coalition government that had promoted economic growth in Scotland during this period. The paper speculates on how the change to a Scottish National Party administration will take forward this inheritance.