Spatial planning, nationalism and territorial politics in Europe

Abstract

The paper explores whether spatial planning, infrastructure, and territorial management issues and policies are an important field of mobilization for nationalist actors in European substate contexts characterized by demands for more autonomy or independence: Scotland, Catalonia and Flanders. It is shown that such issues are sometimes mobilized to support the autonomist or separatist political agendas of substate nationalist parties, but that this varies significantly in the three cases, because of the different political ideologies of each nationalist party vis-à-vis the role of the state and the legitimacy of public policy interventions in private property, land development and market processes.