The compact city has become a leading concept in the planning of peri-urban areas. The compact city concept is often advocated as 'sustainable', because of claims that include lower emissions and conservation of the countryside. The literature shows, however, that there are certain trade-offs in striving for compaction, especially between environmental and social aspects of sustainability. In this paper, we describe expressions of the compact city concept in the planning practice of several European urban sample regions, as well as policies and developments that contradict the compact city. We look at examples of positive and negative impacts of the compact city that were observed in the sample regions. Further, we discuss attempts by planners to deal with sustainability trade-offs. Being aware that developments in the peri-urban areas are closely connected to those in the inner city, we compare the sample regions in order to learn how the compact city concept has been used in planning peri-urban areas across different contexts in Europe: in Western, Central and Mediterranean Europe, and with growing, stable or declining populations. We conclude with recommendations with respect to balance in applying the compact city concept.
Testing an analytical framework. Territorial governance has become an issue in the development of public policy and for those involved in territorial development. This paper presents an analytical framework for territorial governance developed as part of a multidisciplinary research project investigating organizational innovations in governance mechanisms. Developing such a framework for territorial governance is not straightforward. The mechanisms and tools depend on the context and there may be a variety of governance systems depending on previous objectives and dynamics. Moreover, these systems may be based on exploitation or exploration rationales. On the basis of fieldwork undertaken in three contrasting governance situations in Languedoc Roussillon, we show how the suggested analytical framework may be operationalized.La gouvernance territoriale est devenue un enjeu pour la mise en œuvre des politiques publiques et une nécessité pour les acteurs du développement territorial. Cet article présente une grille d’analyse de la gouvernance territoriale construite dans le cadre d’un projet de recherche pluridisciplinaire centré sur la question des innovations organisationnelles dans les dispositifs de gouvernance. Élaborer une grille d’analyse sur la gouvernance territoriale ne va pas de soi. En effet, les dispositifs et les outils sont contextuels et les modes de gouvernance pluriels selon les objectifs et les dynamiques antérieures. Ils peuvent relever d’une logique d’exploitation ou d’exploration. Nous illustrerons l’opérationnalité de la grille d’analyse proposée à partir des travaux de terrain réalisés dans trois situations de gouvernance contrastées en Languedoc Roussillon
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.