Contents:
The European Union (EU) seeks to establish a single market comprising highly developed members alongside with member states that are more hamstrung, economically speaking. There are even greater disparities between regions. Many EU policies concern such disparities, e.g. regional policy, and the policy to promote Trans-European Networks (TENs). Could and, indeed, should, these policies be co-ordinated with a view to their spatial impacts? Or is such co-ordination rather a matter for the Member States and/or their subnational administrations?
What is relevant here is that the EU has no spatial planning competence. So spatial planning in the EU has taken the form of voluntary, so-called intergovernmental co-operation between Member States aimed at developing a joint frame of reference. The climax so far has been an informal meeting of EU planning ministers at Potsdam in May 1999 adopting the 'European Spatial Development Perspective', also called the ESDP. The follow-up has been at Leipzig in May 2007 where the ministers have adopted ‘The Territorial Agenda of the European Union,’ followed by its update, ‘The Territorial Agenda of the European Union 2020’ adopted under the Hungarian presidency in 2011. Meanwhile the discourse is in terms of territorial cohesion rather than European spatial development – but note that there are many overlaps.
Whatever its shape, European spatial planning bears a close relationship to European integration generally. Throughout the course it will be necessary, therefore, to also look at this fascinating process, enabling students to form a considered opinion about issues likely to become increasingly important.
Seminars:
The seminars are designed to give students a grounding in the practices of European spatial planning with where appropriate special reference to Austria and her participation in European programmes.
For this purpose, students are requested to form groups. Each group will prepare one of the topics to be discussed on 29 October, 5, 12, 26 November and 3 December. Each topic should be introduced by one or more members of the group responsible for preparing it. The presentations should convey practical information and insights based on official documents, academic literature and where possible (the course coincedes with the Austrian presidency, so people will be very busy) interviews. Where appropriate, the presentations should cover weaknesses, as well as strengths, including the opinions of the group itself. Such comments should reflect the consensus amongst the members of the group, but where the group cannot arrive at a joint opinion, that, too, might be an interesting point for the subsequent discussion. Anyhow, presentations should end with these or other issues for discussion with the whole class. The presentation must be timed in such a way that there is space for this discussion. Importantly, other members of the class are expected to participate in the ensuing discussions.
Concerning sources, for most topics, Faludi (2010; two copies available at the Centre for Regional Planning and Regional Development) gives background information. Dühr, S., Colomb, C., Nadin, V. (2010) European Spatial Planning and Territorial Cooperation, Routledge, London, New York is a comprehensive handbook with basic information on everything related to European spatial planning. The Institute also has a collection of the journal European Planning Studies. Not to forget, there is the internet. Practically all official documents of the EU are available, and so are all research reports of ESPON. Where the role of Austria is concerned, you may have to partially rely on information in German, but even here there is more available in English than you may think. Like any other Member State, where she participates in international work, Austria, too, provides inputs in English.
Collecting Information, especially where it cannot be found on the website, can take time. So it is important to start preparing well before the date of the seminar. The same is of course true for arranging, if you so wish, interviews.
The discussions and seminars are an important part of the course. Students whose attendance and performance during these seminars is unsatisfactory will not receive the credit points. Those to whom this might apply will be given due warning. (If for whichever reason students are unable to attend one of the sessions, they should notify the lecturer by e-mail beforehand: (a.k.f.faludi@tudelft.nl; a.faludi@xs4all.nl)
Method of teaching:
There will be eight sessions, one introductory and seven sessions with lectures, discussions and seminars.
Organisation of Sessions:
There will be between two and three lectures per session accompanied by discussions on the required reading. It is important that students read that required reading beforehand. In Sessions 1 and 2, there will be time set aside for the discussion of the required reading at the end of each session. In Sessions 3 to 7, there will be no time set aside for the discussion but their will rather be interspersed with the lectures.
Needless to say, this is an important part of the course, so you must set time aside to prepare yourself by reading the literature which has been carefully selected for the purpose.
Sources:
The required reading is being made available.
For a list of relevant works by the lecturer himself see the file European Planning Bibliography of Andreas Faludi in the Faludi Texte 2018 folder. There you can also find all required readings numbered by session and some texts relevant for the seminars.
Contacts:
Students wishing to see the lecturer are encouraged to make an appointment by e-mail: a.faludi@xs4all.nl. (The TU Vienna email address is not recommended.)
