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Europeanisation and territorial governance: an inquiry into power and institutional culture change in Portugal

Morais L Mourato, J.; (2011) Europeanisation and territorial governance: an inquiry into power and institutional culture change in Portugal. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

From within the European Union integration project, a shared spatial development agenda has emerged. From the beginning of the European Spatial Development Perspective process in 1989, to the post-enlargement Territorial Agenda of 2007, in a non-binding policy context of inexistent formal competencies, member-states agreed on a shared vision, spatial development objectives and planning principles for the EU territory. This catalysed the institutionalisation of European Spatial Planning. Fuelled by processes of socialisation framed within a platform for common policy learning the latter produced an undeniable cultural footprint. Growing attention has been given to the impact that this process has had on domestic planning systems and institutions among member-states. This impact is widely referred to as the Europeanisation of planning. This thesis examines the Portuguese National Spatial Planning Policy Programme (PNPOT) under the light of the hypothetical causal relationship between the Europeanisation of planning and institutional culture change in Portugal. As evidence mounts of innovation in policy discourse, conceptual paradigms, legal framework and practices, the research focus shifts to the domestic drivers, mechanisms, key actors and their motivations, enabling factors and obstacles to culture change. The outcome is a portrait of the contemporary challenges faced by planning in Portugal. The latter highlights the fragilities of the planning-related policy learning dynamics, capacity-building processes, inter-institutional coordination deficit and structural shortcomings in terms of the communicational capacity and the adaptational ability of institutions and practitioners in an evolving public policy context. Finally, although a policysteered process, planning culture change in Portugal, if to prevail, depends on the mobilisation of the community of planners. Through a communicative power framework they must work alongside central and local government and citizens in an inclusive spirit of mutual learning and partnership. For a culture change in planning to have any effect in shaping places, it must first shape minds.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Title: Europeanisation and territorial governance: an inquiry into power and institutional culture change in Portugal
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: Third party copyright material (image) has been removed from page 81 of this thesis
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Planning
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1334588
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