IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/urbpla/v9y2024a7972.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multiscalar Governance of Shrinkage in the Netherlands: Past, Present… Future?

Author

Listed:
  • Marco Bontje

    (Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Abstract

The extent of shrinkage in the Netherlands is rather limited so far. Still, the Netherlands was one of the first European countries that introduced a national-level policy for regions facing structural population decline and shrinkage in 2009: the Population Decline Action Plan. This happened in response to local and regional policy initiatives and a lobby of local and regional governments, but also because the Minister of the Interior perceived shrinkage as a national policy challenge. This action plan was an attempt to arrange a multiscalar governance of shrinkage at national, regional, and local scales. However, this policy ended in 2019, and its last remaining element, a targeted subsidy for regions facing structural population decline, ended in 2022. This article will discuss (a) how and why the policy was introduced and how its governance was arranged, (b) how the policy changed between 2009 and 2022, (c) why it ended, (d) which new regional policies have been developed recently instead, and (e) what this could mean for the governance of shrinkage in the Netherlands.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Bontje, 2024. "Multiscalar Governance of Shrinkage in the Netherlands: Past, Present… Future?," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v9:y:2024:a:7972
    DOI: 10.17645/up.7972
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/7972
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/up.7972?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gert-Jan Hospers, 2014. "Policy Responses to Urban Shrinkage: From Growth Thinking to Civic Engagement," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(7), pages 1507-1523, July.
    2. Birgit Leick & Thilo Lang, 2018. "Re-thinking non-core regions: planning strategies and practices beyond growth," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 213-228, February.
    3. Bas Waterhout & Frank Othengrafen & Olivier Sykes, 2013. "Neo-liberalization Processes and Spatial Planning in France, Germany, and the Netherlands: An Exploration," Planning Practice & Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 141-159, February.
    4. Ruiying Liu, 2022. "Long-Term Development Perspectives in the Slow Crisis of Shrinkage: Strategies of Coping and Exiting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-30, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wancong Li & Hong Li & Shijun Wang & Zhiqiang Feng, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Evolution of County-Level Land Use Structure in the Context of Urban Shrinkage: Evidence from Northeast China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Shao, Shuai & Zhang, Xuebin & Yang, Lili, 2023. "Natural resource dependence and urban shrinkage: The role of human capital accumulation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Broitman, Dani & Ben-Haim, Yakov, 2022. "Forecasting residential sprawl under uncertainty: An info-gap analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    4. Shuyi Xie & Elena Batunova, 2019. "Shrinking Historic Neighborhoods and Authenticity Dilution: An Unspoken Challenge of Historic Chinatowns in the United States through the Case of San Francisco," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, December.
    5. Levy, Deborah & Hills, Raewyn & Perkins, Harvey C. & Mackay, Michael & Campbell, Malcolm & Johnston, Karen, 2021. "Local benevolent property development entrepreneurs in small town regeneration," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    6. Mehdi Pourtaheri & Zabih-Allah Torabi & Amir Reza Khavarian-Garmsir & Saeed Sajadi & Colin Micheal Hall, 2024. "Ecolodge Tourism Dynamics: A Village-Level Analysis of Marketing and Policy Indicators in Iran’s Hawraman Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-29, June.
    7. Bin Du & Ying Wang & Jiaxin He & Wai Li & Xiaohong Chen, 2021. "Spatio-Temporal Characteristics and Obstacle Factors of the Urban-Rural Integration of China’s Shrinking Cities in the Context of Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-16, April.
    8. Evgeny M. Bukhvald, 2020. "Managing the spatial development of the Russian economy: Goals and tools," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 11(6), pages 2-14, December.
    9. Zhenshan Yang, 2019. "Sustainability of Urban Development with Population Decline in Different Policy Scenarios: A Case Study of Northeast China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-17, November.
    10. Bernardino Romano & Francesco Zullo & Lorena Fiorini & Cristina Montaldi, 2022. "Micromunicipality (MM) and Inner Areas in Italy: A Challenge for National Land Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-16, November.
    11. Margalit, Talia & Mualam, Nir, 2020. "Selective rescaling, inequality and popular growth coalitions: The case of the Israeli national plan for earthquake preparedness," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    12. Judith Westerink & Annet Kempenaar & Marjo van Lierop & Stefan Groot & Arnold van der Valk & Adri van den Brink, 2017. "The participating government: Shifting boundaries in collaborative spatial planning of urban regions," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(1), pages 147-168, February.
    13. Kristian Olesen & Helen Carter, 2018. "Planning as a barrier for growth: Analysing storylines on the reform of the Danish Planning Act," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(4), pages 689-707, June.
    14. Bouwmeester, Josje & Gerber, Jean-David & Hartmann, Thomas & Ay, Deniz, 2023. "Non-compliance and non-enforcement: An unexpected outcome of flexible soft densification policy in the Netherlands," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    15. Graham Haughton & Phil Allmendinger, 2016. "Think tanks and the pressures for planning reform in England," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(8), pages 1676-1692, December.
    16. Hiroyuki Usui & Joan Perez, 2022. "Are patterns of vacant lots random? Evidence from empirical spatiotemporal analysis in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(3), pages 777-793, March.
    17. Dan Lupu & Liviu-George Maha & Elena-Daniela Viorica, 2023. "The relevance of smart cities’ features in exploring urban labour market resilience: the specificity of post-transition economies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(12), pages 2406-2425, December.
    18. Bram van Vulpen, 2020. "Rethinking The Regional Bounds Of Justice: A Scoping Review Of Spatial Justice In Eu Regions," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 14(2), pages 5-34, DECEMBER.
    19. Olegs Krasnopjorovs, 2022. "Ready for the next 820? Looking for the keys to paradise of Riga city," Discussion Papers 2022/02, Latvijas Banka.
    20. Talia Margalit & Nurit Alfasi, 2016. "The undercurrents of entrepreneurial development: Impressions from a globalizing city," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(10), pages 1967-1987, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v9:y:2024:a:7972. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.