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Recent EU environmental and spatial policies notably strive towards the development paradigm of green growth and economic competitiveness. However, operationalizing spatial policies through growth-driven GDP logics promotes an unequal race towards narrowly defined developmental ‘success’, while perpetuating social, economic and environmental inequalities. Meanwhile, the EU’s territorial cohesion approach has remained a conceptual ‘black box’, its apparent inadequacy for notably mitigating territorial disparities leading to renewed questions about territorial policy’s relevance, delivery and evaluation. In this paper, we add to calls for redesigning territorial cohesion by proposing a turn towards spatial justice for territorial sustainability. Pointing out the need to refocus on regional capabilities and alternative development trajectories, we argue that the ‘right to not catch up’ enables a more locally meaningful and globally sustainable development. Drawing from regional statistics, policy analyses and an empirical case study of three European Territorial Cooperation programs in the heterogeneous Austrian-Czech-Slovak-Hungarian border region, we illustrate how current EU spatial policy approaches evolve in regional practice and why current policy aims fall short for sustainable transformations. Through interrogating development discourses and their alternatives, we contribute to emerging new perspectives on sustainable territorial development at the European as well as at regional levels.
Barbara Demeterova; Tatjana Fischer; Jürgen Schmude. The Right to Not Catch Up—Transitioning European Territorial Cohesion Towards Spatial Justice for Sustainability. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4797 .
AMA StyleBarbara Demeterova, Tatjana Fischer, Jürgen Schmude. The Right to Not Catch Up—Transitioning European Territorial Cohesion Towards Spatial Justice for Sustainability. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (11):4797.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBarbara Demeterova; Tatjana Fischer; Jürgen Schmude. 2020. "The Right to Not Catch Up—Transitioning European Territorial Cohesion Towards Spatial Justice for Sustainability." Sustainability 12, no. 11: 4797.
Despite decades of spending, Cohesion Policy appears unable to fully address growing national disparities and increasing ‘roll-out’ nationalism. In the present study we discuss regional effects of ‘fuzzy’ policy concepts, such as EU’s policy for Territorial Cohesion, in Central European borderlands from a stakeholder perspective. Identifying how key policy documents have framed the discussion of Territorial Cohesion, we furthermore demonstrate the differing ways regional stakeholders have interpreted this vision. By showing how multiple translations have produced dynamics that create a circular process, we conclude that this process leads towards non-comparable outcomes, increased misunderstanding, while fuelling EU scepticism.
Barbara Demeterova; Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins; Tatjana Fischer. Conceptualisations of Territorial Cohesion in Central European border regions. European Planning Studies 2020, 28, 2287 -2306.
AMA StyleBarbara Demeterova, Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins, Tatjana Fischer. Conceptualisations of Territorial Cohesion in Central European border regions. European Planning Studies. 2020; 28 (12):2287-2306.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBarbara Demeterova; Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins; Tatjana Fischer. 2020. "Conceptualisations of Territorial Cohesion in Central European border regions." European Planning Studies 28, no. 12: 2287-2306.