Whither sustainability? Governance and regional integration in the Glatt Valley
at the
RSA Research Network Second Workshop on
Governing the Sustainability Transition – How to govern fundamental Sustainability Transition processes?
10-11 July 2014
University of St. Gallen
Switzerland
Abstract
This paper problematises the concept and
practice of integrative planning – one of the central tenants of
sustainability. We contend that, in practice, planning for the broader goal of
spatial integration has the effect of producing a fundamentally paradoxical and
contradictory social space, a form of urbanisation (or suburbanisation) that
reinforces some of the problems which sustainability seeks to address. Drawing
on an empirical base of observations of transport integration initiatives in
the region of the Glatt Valley, and interview work in the field, this paper
examines how integrative spatial planning strategies sanction further
fragmentation. Observed in the Glatt Valley were attempts to consolidate
infrastructure towards optimising capital accumulation along particular axes of
flows. Housing, transport, and economic development were three key areas that
needed to be integrated for success. The apparent integration of the region,
however, is contrasted against a fragmented field of governance, an ambiguous
set of winners and losers, and an uncertain trajectory of long-term stability.
The research confirms that integrative strategies can entrench and exacerbate
existing tendencies of fragmented governance, and in fact, generate new rounds
of fragmentation with respect to land use and social worlds.
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