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Research Collection Journal Issue disP - The Planning Review Publication Date: 1996 Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-000981948 Rights / License: In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. For more information please consult the Terms of use. ETH Library
Inhalt – Contents disP 165 · 2/2006
3 Guest Editorial
Insights into Evidence-Based Planning
Andreas Faludi
4 Introducing Evidence-Based Planning
Andreas Faludi and Bas Waterhout
14 Evidence-Based Planning
Rhetoric and Reality
Simin Davoudi
25 Le cas français de l’Observatoire des territoires
L’évidence par la prospective ou par l’observation?
Odile Bovar et Jean Peyrony
34 Knowledge and Policy in the Netherlands
The Role of the Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research
Ries van der Wouden, Ed Dammers, and Nico van Ravesteyn
43 Neue Leitbilder der Raumentwicklung in Deutschland
Modernisierung der Raumordnungspolitik im Diskurs
Jürgen Aring und Manfred Sinz
61 From Leipzig to Leipzig
Territorial Research Delivers Evidence
for the New Territorial Agenda of the European Union
Kai Böhme and Peter Schön
71 Debating Evidence-Based Planning
Conclusions from the International Workshop
Andreas Faludi and Bas Waterhout
73 Aus dem NSL – NSL Info
74 Mitteilungen – Upcoming Events
77 Buchbesprechungen – Book Reviews
90 Eingegangene Literatur – Publications Received
Impressum
disP 165 · 2/2006 · 42. Jahrgang/Volume 42
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Guest Editorial disP 165 · 2/2006 3
Insights into Evidence-Based Planning
Andreas Faludi
On 18 and 19 May 2006, the University of Am- strating the need for planning. Presently, an Ob- Dr. Andreas Faludi is Professor
sterdam Institute for German Studies hosted an servatoire du territoire has been established at of Spatial Planning Systems
in Europe at Delft University
international workshop, organized jointly with DIACT to make information available to the
of Technology, OTB Research
Delft University of Technology, with the guest stakeholders in territorial development. Institute for Housing, Urban and
editor of this special issue as the convenor. The Nico van Ravesteyn presented a case study Mobility Studies.
topic was evidence-based planning. In 2004, (written jointly with Ries van der Wouden and Ed
the Dutch Presidency of the EU organized an Dammers, all of the Dutch National Institute of
informal ministerial meeting on territorial co- Spatial Research) on evidence-based planning
hesion where ministers gave the go-ahead for in The Netherlands, where in 2002 the research
an evidence-based document, drawing on the role of the National Spatial Planning Agency
work of the European Spatial Planning Ob- was transferred to the new institute where the
servation Network (ESPON). At a subsequent authors work. The paper gave examples of vari-
meeting in Luxembourg, they accepted a scop- ous types of contributions coming from this and
ing document, The Territorial State and Per- other research establishments.
spectives of the European Union. The German On the second day, Jürgen Aring, profes-
Presidency of 2007 will hold another meeting sor at the University of Kassel and consultant to
in May 2007 where the ministers are expected the German federal government, talked about
to adopt a “Territorial Agenda” based on this new German spatial development policy guide-
scoping document. This provided the occasion lines. He described an interactive process draw-
for looking at the concept of evidence-based ing on evidence provided, amongst others, by
planning. the Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumplanung
The purpose of the workshop was to tease (Federal Office for Building and Spatial Plan-
out issues as regards the interface between ning). The Ministerkonferenz für Raumordnung
knowledge and action and in so doing to draw (Conference of Ministers of Spatial Planning)
on other examples. Thus, after being welcomed approved these in June 2006. Professor Aring
by Lily Sprangers, Executive Director of the In- is co-author, with Manfred Sinz of the German
stitute for German Studies, eighteen partici- Ministry of Traffic, Construction and Housing,
pants from Germany, France, The Netherlands of the German case study in this issue.
and the UK as well as the ESPON Coordination The workshop ended with a paper by Kai
Unit in Luxembourg, listened to two papers that Böhme of the Coordination Unit of ESPON and
set the scene. The first was by Andreas Faludi Peter Schön of the Federal Office for Build-
and Bas Waterhout, both from TU Delft, who ing and Spatial Planning in Bonn. Both are in-
pointed out precedents and drew attention to volved, along with a handful of other experts,
relevant discussions in the literature. The sec- in the formulation of the “Territorial Agenda”.
ond was by Simin Davoudi of Leeds Metropoli- They emphasized the complexity of evidence-
tan University, who discussed the rhetoric and based planning and identified different types of
reality of evidence-based policy in the UK where knowledge-action interfaces.
the intention to base policy on evidence rather The relation between evidence and planning
than on ideology has been a trademark of the seems anything but straightforward. Rather
successive Blair governments. than talking about evidence-based planning, to
Subsequently, Jean Peyrony, Director of the invoke a concept introduced by Simin Davoudi
Mission opérationelle transfrontalière and Odile in her paper, one must hope for planning and
Bovar of the Délégation interministérielle à policy-making in a pluralistic situation to be
l’aménagement et à la compétitivité des terri- “evidence-informed”.
toires (DIACT) discussed the changing role of The papers in this issue have been re-worked
evidence in the French aménagement du terri- to reflect insights gained during the two inten-
toire. In the past, evidence has been used to sive sessions.
make “scenarios of the unacceptable” demon-
4 disP 165 · 2/2006 Introducing Evidence-Based Planning
Andreas Faludi and Bas Waterhout
Dr. Andreas Faludi is Professor Abstract: This article introduces the concept of and the election in 1997 of the Labour Party.
of Spatial Planning Systems evidence-based planning in the context of its ap- In order to find a way to deal with the rise to
in Europe at Delft University
pearance in the UK at the end of the 1990s and power of New Labour, in opposition not only to
of Technology, OTB Research
Institute for Housing, Urban and traces its historical relationship to the practice its Conservative opponents, but also to Labour
Mobility Studies. of collecting information for state and public ideologues wedded to the old ways of concep-
purposes from Roman taxation and the famous tualizing policy in terms suited to an earlier
Bas Waterhout is a researcher
Domesday Book to the movements and counter- industrial age, a new approach to policy-mak-
at Delft University of Technol-
ogy, OTB Research Institute for movements of the last century to its present role ing had to be found and evidence-based policy
Housing, Urban and Mobility in politics and policy-making in the field of spa- provided this (see Davoudi in this issue). So, how
Studies. tial planning. Delving into the connections be- can this approach be understood and what is its
tween evidence and decision-making, evidence relevance to planning? This is the question on
and action, the use and role of research, cre- which this special issue focuses.
ativity, and social context as elements of spatial It would be facile to dismiss evidence-ba-
planning, the article also provides background sed planning merely as a revival of an old tra-
on the perennial planning-theoretical debate. dition of “survey-before-plan” (more about that
It leads into the current situation where the EU later) and to dwell on the problems involved
charter requires the use of the best scientific in identifying “objective” evidence on which to
information available for decision-making and base policy and to criticize this as “technocra-
where the demand for research has increased tic” (a concept with admittedly different conno-
since the year 2000 with corresponding agen- tations, depending on the administrative cul-
cies (ESDP, ESPON) and institutions being cre- ture), expert-driven and remote. Rather than
ated or reorganized to fill the information gap. pursing this line of argument, this issue is based
Pointing out what is new about evidence-based on the conviction that there is something genu-
Modern democratic constitutions planning and how it has changed from previous inely new about evidence-based planning. For
typically prescribe a separation of practices, this article builds a framework for the example, the Dutch National Spatial Planning
rationality and power, much like
articles presented in this issue, which study and Agency, which once combined the research and
the untenable separation of facts
and values in conventional social evaluate the theory and practice of evidence- policymaking roles, has been split in two: an in-
and political thinking. The ideal, based planning as one of the important trends dependent National Spatial Research Institute
which often remains unrealized, of this century. (see the paper by Van der Wouden, Dammers
prescribes that first we must know
and Van Raveseyn) and the Directorate-General
about a problem, then we can
decide about it. (Flyvbjerg 2002: for Spatial Policy. Likewise, the French Datar
354f.) In the 1990s, there was much talk about a com- (Délegation à l’aménagement du territoire et à
municative or argumentative turn in planning l’action régionale, now recast as the Diact Dé-
The production and utilization of
(Fischer, Forester 1993; Healey 1993, 1996; legation interministérielle à l’aménagement du
governing knowledge can be seen
as a social process … To make such Sager 1994). The starting point was that plan- territoire et à la compétitivité des territoires), re-
processes transparent, distinc- ning ought to be less technocratic and more of cently spawned an Observatoire des territoires.
tions between … data, ideas and an interactive process. What this introduction Datar always operated, and Diact continues to
arguments are useful. Each has its
and the papers in this issue are about is an ap- operate, as a central think tank working on com-
own arenas or communities. … The
societal actors for data are usually parent countermove – an “evidence-based turn mon visions with the help of scientific evidence.
specialists in academic or profes- in planning” in the 2000s. The Observatoire adds to this by generating data
sional circles. … Governing ideas Indeed, since the start of the new millen- and producing maps. Two papers in this issue
are mainly created and exchanged
nium, the demand for research on spatial de- will discuss these new developments.
by people of mixed status at cross-
roads; … knowledge formation velopment issues seems to be growing and data, In Germany, the Bundesamt für Bauwesen
and utilization as argument in gov- or evidence, seems once again to come to be und Raumplanung (BBR; Federal Office for
erning is more “political” because it considered of crucial importance for planning. Building and Spatial Planning), also featured in
involves reasoning and convincing
However, as the quote from Kooiman shows (see this issue in the article by Aring and Sinz, has
others. This type of knowledge is
usually created in public domains: left), evidence-based planning remains an inter- always been at some distance from the federal
either explicitly defined roles, active, communicative process. The meaning of administration; it is a kind of an archetype of a
as between politicians and mass evidence is never self-evident, but needs to be national planning research institute. To this day,
media commentators, or in less
established in an argumentative fashion. the BBR occupies a strategic position. It is the
formalized arenas, as between
members of “advocacy coalitions”. The current interest in evidence-based pol- result of a fusion between two former research
(Kooiman 2003: 32) icy or, in this case, planning comes from the UK establishments, one devoted to planning and
one to building. So there have been no changes the European Spatial Development Perspective disP 165 · 2/2006 5
in Germany comparable to those in The Nether- (ESDP).
lands and France. Major planning exercises, like The French, German, Dutch and ESPON
regional planning for the Ruhr Area, have tradi- cases discussed here may thus indicate a grow-
tionally been accompanied by efforts to compile ing need for research and data on spatial de-
available data in the form of a planning atlas velopment to serve as a basis of planning pro-
(Planungsatlas). The relevant term in German is posals and for action to be taken. Why has the
Bestandsaufnahme (taking stock). Similarly, the demand for evidence increased? What is the
Federal Spatial Planning Act of 1965 (revised role envisaged for evidence in communicative
since) requires spatial planning reports (Raum- planning processes? Who intends to use it? And,
ordnungsberichte) to be produced once every anyway, considering the Flyvbjerg quote at the
four years. As the German case study shows, beginning (see page 4), is evidence really the
these reports feed into the formulation of policy, neutral input that it is sometimes portrayed to
the latest document being formulated, as befits be? This introduction discusses some early ins-
the German federal system, by the responsible tances of the use of evidence in policy and plan-
federal minister along with the ministers of the ning. It then deals briefly with the origins of
German states (Länder). The task of compiling evidence-based planning as currently discus-
the Spatial Planning Report has been delegated sed, followed by an elaboration on the ESPON
to the Federal Office for Building and Spatial program that started the ball rolling and a con-
Planning. sideration of the institutional issues and the dif-
Much other technical work to support fed- ferent dynamics of research and policy-making.
eral planning, including the German contribu- The conclusions formulate issues addressed by
tions to European planning, is done by the same the case studies, each in its own way.
institute, giving it a leading role in the research
program pursued by the European Spatial Plan-
ning Observatory Network (ESPON). In fact, it Early Examples
was the BBR that took important initiatives that
inspired the formation of ESPON. However, for The role of the Roman census in the Christian
the purpose of producing the latest joint po- Nativity narrative is an early example of the col-
licy document, an outside consultant has been lection of evidence. The Gospel of Saint Luke
called in, Jürgen Aring, one of the authors of the speaks about a decree from Caesar Augustus
German case study in this issue. that everyone should be taxed, and for the pur-
ESPON was the immediate reason for the pose of counting, heads of households had to go
current attention to evidence-based planning to their home communities, which took Joseph
(see Böhme and Schön in this issue). Plainly, the and Mary through Bethlehem on their way to
sheer availability of research data gained un- Nazareth. Filling the public coffers has been a
der the ESPON program made a difference. It frequent reason for collecting data. Such sur-
amounts to tens of thousands of pages of reports veys contribute to what Scott calls the “legibil-
which make profuse use of maps and other gra- ity” of the state’s domain: “To tax or to conscript,
phics, and these are now available for anybody to educate or to punish its population, the state
to use on the Web site www.espon.eu. This seems must first be able to see them.” (quoted in Wal-
to offer new opportunities for European spatial ter, Haahr 2005: 31)
development policy, albeit under the flag of ter- Another well-known historic example is the
ritorial cohesion policy (Faludi, forthcoming), to Domesday Book produced under William the
be put on a firmer basis. Conqueror. Having gained possession of Eng-
It also imposes a duty on the Commission to land at the Battle of Hastings, the Norman king
avail itself of these insights. Under Article 95(3) wanted to learn about his new realm and he gave
of the Treaty establishing the European Com- detailed prescriptions for how to go about com-
munity, it must use the best scientific evidence piling the evidence. The prescriptions remind
available, and this is now seen as applying not us of modern-day surveys:
only in the policy areas to which this article re-
lates, but as a general requirement. (Jachten- After this had the king a large meeting, and very
fuchs, Kohler-Koch 2003: 26) In fact, the Com- deep consultation with his council, about this
mission already refers to the results of ESPON, land; how it was occupied, and by what sort of
although selectively, for example, in the Third men. Then sent he his men over all England into
Cohesion Report. In the 1990s, such analytical each shire; commissioning them to find out ‘How
input was sorely lacking during the writing of many hundreds of hides were in the shire, what
6 disP 165 · 2/2006 land the king himself had, and what stock upon The role of expertise – and of experts – is
the land; or, what dues he ought to have by the the reverse side of the coin. The danger is
year from the shire. Also he commissioned them to one of technocracy. In his Counter-Revolution
record in writing, “How much land his archbishops of Science, Friedrich Hayek delivered a strin-
had, and his diocesan bishops, and his abbots, and gent critique of the “polytechnicians” (after
his earls;” and though I may be prolix and tedious, the École polytechnic established at that time
“What, or how much, each man had, who was an [Hayek 1979]). Inevitably though, there have
occupier of land in England, either in land or in been counter-arguments. In any case, the Saint-
stock, and how much money it were worth.” So Simon tradition is still strong in present-day
very narrowly, indeed, did he commission them to French planning (Peyrony 2005; see Bovar and
trace it out, that there was not one single hide, nor Peyrony in this issue). It comes through in the
a yard of land, nay, moreover (it is shameful to tell, leading role of French technical and adminis-
though he thought it no shame to do it), not even trative elites (Siedentop 2000), so much so that
an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine was there left, that “technocrat” has different, more positive con-
was not set down in his writ. And all the recorded notations in French than in other languages. It
particulars were afterwards brought to him. 1 is this tradition that has had a determining in-
fluence on the ethos and style of the European
A similar example comes from a collection of Commission through the agency of, amongst
classic planning texts published for the forti- others, Jean Monnet, first Commissaire Général
eth anniversary of Datar. The first article dates du Plan de Modernisation et d’Equipement in
from more than 300 years ago, and the editors France in the immediate post-war period, and
describe it as fundamental for French planning subsequently responsible for running the High
(Alvergne, Musso 2003: 25). The text is an ex- Authority of the European Coal and Steel Com-
cerpt from instructions issued by Louis XIV’s munity. In addition, the charge of technocracy
Minister of Finance, Jean Baptiste Colbert to his is open to the counter-charge of presentism:
roving inspectors. The inspectors were to sur- measuring the past in terms of current con-
vey national resources and to assess the perfor- cerns. Walters and Haahr (2005: 36) warn of this
mance of provincial dignitaries in administering danger in relation to the alleged elitism of Mon-
them, perhaps the first reference to something net, a charge “which is made from the perspec-
akin to social capital or territorial capital (Water- tive of a present where the problem has become
hout 2005) – governance capacity, if you like. one of ‘involving’ the European public.” In its
A pronounced view on the role of evidence historic context, Monnet’s approach was much
is that held by Auguste Comte. The inventor more acceptable. Likewise, Saint-Simon’s insis-
of the term “sociology” and father of positiv- tence in the early 19th century on expertise was
ism believed in “savoir pour prévoir et pouvoir”. progressive.
Elsewhere he said: “Induire pour déduire, afin de Through Frederic Le Play, the French school
construire.” (Quoted from Boardman 1978: 34) had a strong influence on the thinking of Pat-
This suggests a linear process. It also suggests rick Geddes (Fletcher 1971 (vol. 2): 832–839).
that those in the know should be responsible. Geddes is famous for his dictum “survey be-
Henri Saint-Simon, to whom Comte had been fore plan”, which he started developing in the
secretary, was an aristocrat who had renounced early twentieth century. Geddes distrusted poli-
his noble title, fought in the American Revolu- tics and politicians. As with similar movements
tion and then returned to France, and he was opposed to the allegedly rampant corruption
unequivocal about this. In a fashion reminis- of local government in the US in the 1920s and
cent of Plato’s philosopher king, he argued that 1930s, with reverberations until well after the
government must be turned over to an elite of Second World War, Geddes wanted to take plan-
philosophers, engineers and scientists. Saint- ning out of politics. He insisted that democracy
Simon was the first in an imaginary pantheon of “fails to yield all that its inventors hoped of it,
high-modernist figures invoked by Scott (1998). simply because it is so tolerantly representative
High-modernism is a pronounced version of of its majorities; and there is great truth in the
the belief in scientific and technical progress common consolation that municipal govern-
and instrumental rationality. It is thus “a par- ments, like the larger ones, are seldom much
ticularly sweeping vision of how the benefits of worse than we deserve.” (Geddes 1904, quoted
technical and scientific progress might be ap- in Faludi 1987: 8)
plied – usually through the state – in every field The sociographers in the tradition of Le Play
of human activity.” (Scott 1998: 90; quoted in and Geddes are often accused of having been
Waters, Haahr 2005: 24) atheoretical. This may be true for the practice ofsurveys as it subsequently developed. However, before-plan maxim (Faludi, Van der Valk 1994: disP 165 · 2/2006 7
according to Fletcher (1971), this is not true for 42). The protagonists were engineers inspired
the founding fathers. The sociographers were by British, and, in particular, German examples
not mindlessly collecting facts, they also in- and textbooks. At Delft University of Technol-
voked theoretical concepts. Nevertheless, their ogy, engineers have been taught to establish and
main contribution, according to Fletcher, was to invoke technical standards as regards the width
advance the art of empirical research. Fletcher of roads, the number of rooms per family, and
also argues that, far from seeing this as research the nature and location of facilities, including
for its own sake, they were imbued with the open space. However, architects claimed that
desire to contribute to practical improvement, the final synthesis, the creative leap which Bran-
which is what Geddes’ concept of “civics” de- ford had located in the Inlook Tower, was their
notes. Fletcher also demonstrates that the soci- prerogative, and the engineers conceded this
ographers were well aware of the need to be se- point (op. cit.: 46f.).
lective and that they allowed their research to be An emblematic case was that of the General
informed by prior theorising. Extension Plan of Amsterdam in the mid-1930s.
However, as Faludi (1987: 8–11) claims, Ged- It was based on what Van der Valk (1990) has de-
des and his followers had no clear concept of scribed as a fully-fledged program formulated
how to bridge the gap between analysis and by a key-figure, the civil engineer Th. K. van
practical decision-making, between evidence Lohuizen. This program concerned the role of
and policy. Faludi quotes Geddes’ collaborator, knowledge and the methods of applied social-
Victor Branford (1914:33), who described the science research, identifying the key-topics as
process in the following terms: those of employment, population growth and
transport. The program started from the prem-
Having made his civic survey, the student retires, ise that urban planning was never purely a mat-
let us say, into his meditative cell. He takes with ter of intuition, and that planning must rather
him a carefully built up store of mental imagery be based on evidence.
… of the given city and its inhabitants as evolving The apotheosis of this program was a report
towards definite ideals or degenerating towards by a group of planning experts entitled Devel-
their negation … [Then] the student of sociol- opment and the Preservation of Nature compiled
ogy re-emerges into the world as civic statesman before the Second World War, but not published
… The man of action is getting ready with a pro- until 1942, which is probably why it did not re-
gramme and policy. (Faludi 1987: 9) ceive much attention. The report justified pub-
lic intervention in land use as laid down under
This raises a perennial issue with evidence- Dutch law. For a long time, urban growth had
based planning. Nobody would deny that evi- been random, governed by the wishes of devel-
dence is a vital element in making plans, or in opers with the connivance of politicians bent on
any kind of policy-making for that matter, but allowing their communities to grow. However,
how exactly does evidence relate to decision- “the Housing Act has for a long time carried
making? Surely, we must do better than Geddes, within it the principle that the growth of settle-
who regarded the step from knowledge to action ments ought not to be the outcome of inciden-
as a strictly personal affair, a matter of intuition. tal circumstances, but that public authorities
Apparently, his Outlook Tower, the famous mu- must play a leading role in development.” The
seum where he collected vast amounts of infor- report also addressed the fear that planning
mation about the Edinburgh region, had a small might mean favors to some landowners at the
room in it, dubbed the Inlook Tower, where visi- detriment of others whose land was subject to
tors were invited to ponder the implications of planning restrictions. In Geddesian fashion, the
what they had seen in splendid isolation (Board- report portrayed the role of experts as that of
man 1978: 141), much the way designers say guarantors of objectivity. Arbitrariness had oc-
they get their inspiration. So with Geddes and curred in the past in instances:
his followers, the step from evidence to action is
shrouded in the mist of the creative leap. Where plans for the future use of land were the
In this respect, the development of Dutch products of fancy. In the past, fancy has certainly
planning since its beginnings in the nineteenth come into this. However, where plan preparation
century is instructive. This development was is in the hands of expert designers, their plans
expert-driven, focusing on technical problems are based on scientific analysis of the situation at
that without much ado seemed to require pub- hand. As regards the allocation of land for devel-
lic intervention, thus anticipating the survey- opment, this means that designation for this pur-8 disP 165 · 2/2006 pose takes place on the basis of suitability from knowledge to action required explicit attention.
a planning point of view. Looked at in this way, Over time, they grounded their arguments in
the preparation and implementation of extension philosophy and the methodology of science.
plans allocating certain areas for urban uses and For a while, the critical rationalism of Karl
others for agriculture implies no arbitrariness, nor Popper was a favorite source of inspiration
the granting of favours. Rather it makes sure that (Camhis 1979; McConnell 1981; Faludi 1986).
the speculative urge of others does not prevent Best known for his insistence that science pro-
those whose land is the most suitable for develop- gresses by seeking to falsify hypotheses, Popper
ment from realising its potential. (quoted in Fa- also attended to the role of evidence in ways that
ludi, Van der Valk 1994: 60) can enlighten this discussion. In his early work,
The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959), he re-
Unfortunately, neither Van Lohuizen’s program jects the claim of logical positivists that scien-
nor the 1942 report had much to say about tific theory can be induced, as the term goes,
the vital step from evidence to action. This al- from observations. According to Popper, there
lowed urban designers to fill the void, the more can be no observations and no understanding
so since there were few civil engineers inter- of reality “as it is”. On the contrary, observation,
ested in planning. Instead, geography gradu- in particular the interpretation of data, is always
ates, called sociografen in The Netherlands, subject to scientific argument and is ultimately
were filling available junior positions as survey a matter of decision by the community of scien-
researchers, but they held little sway over the tists. Popper compares this with juridical proce-
way survey data were used (Faludi, Van der Valk dures where the verdict on which a judgement is
1994: 84). Anyhow, surveys were notorious for based is also a matter of decision:
never providing a complete and unambiguous
guide to action. To make things worse, surveys By its decision, the jury accepts, by agreement,
were not available in time, and so architects felt a statement about a factual occurrence… The
little compunction about disregarding them, significance of this decision lies in the fact that
at most “cherry-picking” data that suited their from it … certain consequences can be deduced.
intuition. In other words, the decision forms the basis for
This situation did not change before the early the application of the system: the verdict plays
1960s when some geographers came to occupy the part of a “true statement of fact”. But it is
positions of authority as professors of what the clear that the statement need not be true merely
Dutch call planologie. Steigenga, in particular, because the jury has accepted it. This fact is ac-
formulated a program called Van sociale ana- knowledged in the rule allowing a verdict to be
lyse naar social-ruimtelijke constructie (From so- squashed or revised. (Popper 1959: 109f.; see
cial analysis to socio-spatial construction) (Stei- Faludi 1986: 51)
genga 1962). He keenly followed the emergent
planning-theoretical debate that was to focus Translated into terms relevant to planning, this
more and more on the, in his terms, construc- is one of the cornerstones of the so-called deci-
tive step from evidence to action. sion-centered view of planning (Faludi 1987). It
says that the “definition of the decision-making
situation” is itself the outcome of a series of de-
Planning-Theoretical Debates cisions, among others about what to regard as
relevant evidence, and, as such, it is necessar-
The relationship between knowledge based on ily value-laden and political. This reconciles the
evidence and action was the object of planning- decision-centered view with the concerns ex-
theoretical debates in the 1970s and 1980s. The pressed by Flyvbjerg and Kooiman in the quotes
battle lines were drawn between proponents of at the beginning of this introduction. As they
“substantive” versus “procedural” theory (Fal- say, there can be no stringent separation be-
udi 1973). As the name suggests, proponents of tween facts and values. Rather, the definition of
substantive theory emphasized understanding the decision-making situation is a matter to be
the object of planning by means of theory-for- settled in an interactive process of argument in-
mation and research. Like the sociographers volving give-and-take.
before them, they assumed without much ado With others, Faludi has expanded the notion
that such evidence would provide a basis for of the definitions of decision-making situations
policy and action. Far from denying the role of being political into a claim that in cases where,
substantive research and theory, proponents of as in The Netherlands, planning has been consis-
procedural theory argued that the step from tent and cumulative for a long time, such defini-tions are framed by some overarching planning fixed for May in Leipzig – surely no accident. disP 165 · 2/2006 9
doctrine (Faludi, Van der Valk 1994; Korthals After all, it was at Leipzig where the basics of
Altes 1995). A similar position is taken by Hajer the European Spatial Development Perspective
(1995) in introducing the notion of “discourse (see Faludi, Waterhout 2002) were fixed in 1994.
coalitions”. They both are part of a sociological A brief look at this process may provide us with
turn in planning theory (Faludi 1998). an idea of what evidence-based planning could
The message from this review of the litera- actually mean, but note that elsewhere in this
ture is to emphasize once again that there can be issue, Böhme and Schön expand upon this.
no question of evidence forming a self-evident,
objective basis for action. Rather, on methodo-
logical grounds, it is clear that what is accepted ESPON in Context
as decisive evidence is a matter of choice, and as
such is value-laden and political. The search for ESPON is a research network financed by the
evidence, i.e., the formulation of research pro- European Commission under Article 53 of the
grams and proposals, is also a political choice, INTERREG Community Initiative with 29 coun-
which explains the sometimes contentious dis- tries participating: the 25 member states of the
cussions around, e.g., the ESPON program and European Union (EU) plus the two accession
the subtle arrangements for establishing a bal- states Bulgaria and Romania, as well as Norway
ance between the influence of the Commission and Switzerland. The program consists of more
and that of the member states of the European than 30 projects carried out by an international
Union in guiding it. consortia of research institutes from all over
As has become evident, past discussions Europe. ESPON was set-up in 2002, but the first
of such matters have been couched in various idea dates back to 1990 when, in Turin under
terms. The term evidence-based planning is of the Italian presidency, the EU ministers respon-
recent vintage. As Solesbury (2002) explains, sible for spatial planning discussed European
and as Davoudi confirms in this issue, it is wed- spatial planning (Faludi, Waterhout 2002). In
ded to the program of New Labour for “Mod- 1999, these discussions led to the adoption of
ernising Britain”. As with other aspects of this the European Spatial Development Perspective
philosophy, the influence of ideas from the US (ESDP; CEC 1999), being the first, although
is evident (Healy 2002). Thus, evidence-based informal, EU spatial planning document and a
planning operates through evaluation studies, major feat in planning history. However, accord-
works with indicators, and tries to spread good ing to its makers, the ESDP lacked a firm know-
practices; approaches that meanwhile have be- ledge base about Europe’s spatial organization
come common in the European Union. and development. Rather than being based on
So far, evidence-based planning has re- evidence, the ESDP was a consensus document
mained a British concept. Davoudi explores its reflecting compromises between various inter-
roots in the United Kingdom of the late 1990s ests based on the appreciation of stakeholders
and early 2000s. Indeed, only a few years ago, of where national spatial trends were heading
Böhme (2002) could report that none of his and what the issues were. It was for this reason
Scandinavian colleagues seemed to have heard that soon after the ESDP was approved, it was
about this concept. Which does not, of course, decided to set up ESPON as one of the twelve
mean to say that there was no evidence-based items of the Tampere ESDP Action Plan.
planning taking place. The concept as such did However, there were institutional issues that
not enter the European discourse until very re- took time to settle (Van Gestel, Faludi 2005).
cently, at the informal ministerial meeting on Now, after four years of operation, and with
territorial cohesion at Rotterdam in Novem- the many interim and some final results avail-
ber 2004 (Faludi, Waterhout 2005; Schmeitz able, ESPON has gained recognition as a useful
2005). There it was decided to produce an evi- source on spatial or territorial development in
dence-based document drawing on the work of Europe. Already, ESPON is starting to influence
ESPON. Subsequently, at Luxembourg in May national, regional and local planning practices.
2005, a scoping document, The Territorial State Also, its results are being used by the European
and Perspectives of the European Union (Ter- Commission, for instance, in its Third Cohesion
ritorial State), was presented. It is now in the Report (CEC 2004). Of course, as indicated pre-
process of being elaborated by successive EU viously, ESPON also fed into the making of the
presidencies and due to be completed under document on The Territorial State and Perspec-
the German presidency in the first half of 2007, tives of the European Union.
with the date and venue of the presentation The latter document represents a kind of fol-10 disP 165 · 2/2006 low-up to the ESDP. It is being formulated by way, ESPON should lead to a better understand-
representatives of the same member states – and ing of the organization of the European territory
sometimes by the very same people – that were and of spatial trends and relationships. In so do-
instrumental in bringing the ESDP about, but ing, ESPON is intended to further strengthen
the context has changed through the addition the discourse that was created by the ESDP.
of new EU members. The Territorial State has Whether this will help to achieve more co-
more or less the same objectives as the ESDP, herence between EU policies in the end remains
but it uses language that reflects the discourses to be seen. One thing is certain though: whether
of the 2000s about jobs, growth and competi- or not this will be the case will not depend solely
tiveness. Probably the greatest challenge is to on the evidence provided. Once again, contrary
influence the European Commission and the to what the term might suggest, evidence-based
development of EU sector policies. Although the planning is a political process.
ESDP was a success in terms of its application in
and by the member states, it failed to influence
Commission services, other than DG Regio. The Institutional Perspective
informal status of the ESDP is basically to blame
for this (Nordregio 2006). Because of the spatial The case of ESPON and the Territorial State
impact of EU policies on the territories of mem- document is interesting because it is still rela-
ber states and their regions, planners from the tively new and seeks ways to achieve a more
member states, in contrast, consider the ESDP prominent position for spatial or territorial pol-
important (Ravesteyn, Evers 2004; Robert et al. icy as an institutionalized field. This process
2001). can be viewed in terms of discourse, a concept
Another major objective of the Territorial standing for “an ensemble of ideas, concepts
State exercise is to prepare for EU territorial co- and categorizations that are produced, repro-
hesion policy. Territorial cohesion is to be found duced and transformed in a particular set of
in the Constitution as a new competence shared practices and through which meaning is given to
between the Union and the member states. As physical and social realities and which perme-
the reader knows though, after the French and ates regional, national and supranational policy-
Dutch referenda, the Constitution is on a back making circuits.” (Hajer 1995: 44)
burner, so any explicit EU territorial cohesion Discourse thus acts as a filter and in so doing
policy is an uncertain long-term prospect at frames messages and situations. Hajer (1995)
best. calls the struggle for discursive dominance a
As indicated, because of its informal sta- hegemonic battle. The main aim is to make ac-
tus and also because of the abstract language tors look at the world through particular lenses
it uses, the ESDP was unable to influence the shaped by the dominant discourse. Usually, such
development of an EU sector policy. The as- battles are won by convincing third parties (poli-
sumption is that, by being more concrete and ticians, media, etc.) of the logic and importance
by invoking the evidence drawn from ESPON, of the arguments put forward. Thus, a prerequi-
the Territorial State document might be more site is that the discourse itself is strongly devel-
successful. Member states and DG Regio of- oped. In the case of territorial cohesion, this is
ficials have firm views as regards the kind of exactly what ESPON attempts to achieve.
evidence needed: “hard” evidence such as maps On the face of it, the ESPON case seems to
and quantifiable data that lend themselves to be different from the Dutch, French and Ger-
unambiguous interpretation. This should help man cases where evidence is being created in
add substance to the communicative approach the context of a well-established tradition of
that was used in the ESDP process and which spatial policy-making. In fact though, the Dutch
had apparently not been strong enough to con- National Institute for Spatial Research and the
vince Commission officials responsible for sec- French Observatoire are just as old, or new, as
tor policies. ESPON. Much as ESPON, they have to prove
To this end, the ESPON program takes three their added-value for policy-making. However,
directions: the first elaborates on the principles the question is: For which policy? With the new
and themes of the ESDP; the second assesses set-up, clearly something has changed as re-
the spatial impacts of various EU policies, a gards the spatial planning policies of both coun-
topic also discussed in the ESDP, while the third tries. Are there also hegemonic battles going on
deals with cross-thematic projects that aim to or is something else at stake? And is the German
bring consistency to ESPON outcomes and to situation as solid as it seems? The case studies
combine them into workable packages. In this will cast light on these issues.Different dynamics Conclusions disP 165 · 2/2006 11 Because of its political character, it is not always The concept of evidence-based planning as such easy to invoke evidence. In many cases, policy may be new, but, as the above has shown, this requires evidence that is not available, at least is true neither for the idea nor for its practice. not in time to be relevant for the resolution of There are the historical examples that have led the issues of the day. There can be various rea- over time to surveys becoming part of the clas- sons for this. For instance, researchers may have sic planning tradition, as in UK and Dutch plan- started from different assumptions than pol- ning law. However, the context within which and icy-makers. There may be a mismatch between the purposes for which evidence is being col- the initial hypotheses and how thinking about a lected has changed from the purpose of Roman certain topic has evolved. Due to an acute and of tax collection to the self-assessment of per- unforeseen policy problem, the focus of policy- formance against indicators as defined under makers may have shifted, requiring a particular the Lisbon Strategy. In the former case, the ad- kind of evidence, but one that is not immedi- vantage is exclusive to central authorities. In the ately at hand. In general, the problem of scarcity latter case, the learning is mutual: “The bench- of relevant information is related to the differ- mark and the best practice emerge as privileged ent dynamics of the policy-making process and instruments to catalyze the space of European the research process. government, to implicate its partners in games While research normally follows a set pro- of mutual learning and solidaristic rivalry, and cess of formulating hypotheses, research de- to ensure they remain committed to the task sign, collecting empirical evidence and draw- of maximizing performance.” (Walters, Haahr ing conclusions, a process that has a relatively 2005: 142) long gestation period, policy development and The purpose of this special issue is to study implementation tend to be less predictable and and evaluate the theory and practice of evi- more dynamic. Policy is often heavily influenced dence-based planning using four recent exam- by events of the day. It is therefore easy to see ples as case studies. Apart from giving an ac- that in such cases there can hardly ever be a di- count of the specifics of the situation, each case rect relationship between a research program study addresses questions such as: and the delivery of a specific policy. Of course, • The assumptions underlying the role of evi- there will always be exceptions where policy- dence in decision-making on planning issues. makers have the opportunity to have a direct • The organizational form: How is the collection impact on research (see Zonneveld, Waterhout and interpretation of evidence being organized? 2005), but generally this will not be the case. So How can the gap between evidence and political there is every reason for reflecting on how policy decision-making [in terms in the title of the Ter- and research can dovetail. ritorial State document between the “state” and Closely related to the above situation are the the “perspectives”] be bridged? conditions under which researchers are allowed • What is the use of approaches designed to to work and the extent to which they can with- bridge this gap, for instance, scenarios, spatial stand pressure. While contract research some- visions, models and, more generally, creativity? times means a high dependency, the relation • What is the role of indicators in collecting, between policy-makers and semi-independent analyzing and presenting evidence? research establishments, such as in the four • How do stakeholders participate? cases under consideration in this issue, may be • Does evidence improve political decision- less tight. This means that researchers can go making about planning issues? Does it create about their work with less pressure and inter- trust in expertise? Does it help with transpar- ference from policy-makers. The positive side is ency of outcomes? Does it help with the delivery that outcomes may be more reliable. The down- of policy? side is that they may be less relevant for pol- Between them, the case studies, along with icy-making. More direct involvement of policy- the theoretical argument in the paper by Da- makers in research could obviate this problem. voudi, should cast light on one of the trends of However, this in turn can mean that the results the 2000s: evidence-based planning. are less reliable. From a methodological and organizational perspective, the balance between Note independent research and policy relevance is 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesday_book# difficult to establish. The_Survey
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