IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v124y2023ics0264837722004525.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Institutionalizing ideas about citizens’ initiatives in planning: Emerging discrepancies between rhetoric and assurance

Author

Listed:
  • Bisschops, Saskia
  • Beunen, Raoul
  • Hollemans, Daniël

Abstract

This paper explores the institutionalization process regarding ideas about a more prominent role for citizens’ initiatives in planning. Citizens’ initiatives are often considered important for the transition towards sustainable urban development. Although this claim is not undisputed, many planning reforms in Western societies have promoted the inclusion of citizens in planning policies and projects. In the new Dutch Environment and Planning Act (EPA), which is expected to come into force in 2023, similar intentions are stated. The EPA claims to enhance participation of citizens, amongst other stakeholders, such as societal organizations, governmental bodies and businesses, at an early stage in decision-making processes, while in addition the planning system should become better suited to stimulate and facilitate societal initiatives. This study reveals that these ambitions have not resulted in clear rules or norms that strengthen the role for citizens’ initiatives in urban planning. The analysis of the development of the EPA shows that the institutionalization process can be characterized by 1) an emerging discrepancy between the rhetorical key message that all citizens’ initiatives will benefit from the EPA and the limited legal assurance, 2) the assumption that the myriad of forms citizens’ initiatives come in can be moulded into general participatory schemes and 3) a lack of reflections on how lenient planning rules are likely to advance market parties and governments rather than citizens’ initiatives. Because the institutionalization process continues after effectuation, in particular local governments are urged to develop additional policies to ensure a stronger position for citizens’ initiatives in planning.

Suggested Citation

  • Bisschops, Saskia & Beunen, Raoul & Hollemans, Daniël, 2023. "Institutionalizing ideas about citizens’ initiatives in planning: Emerging discrepancies between rhetoric and assurance," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:124:y:2023:i:c:s0264837722004525
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837722004525
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106425?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hiska Ubels & Bettina Bock & Tialda Haartsen, 2019. "An evolutionary perspective on experimental local governance arrangements with local governments and residents in Dutch rural areas of depopulation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(7), pages 1277-1295, November.
    2. Patsy Healey, 2015. "Citizen-generated local development initiative: recent English experience," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 109-118, July.
    3. Douglass C. North, 2005. "Introduction to Understanding the Process of Economic Change," Introductory Chapters, in: Understanding the Process of Economic Change, Princeton University Press.
    4. Philippe Zittoun, 2009. "Understanding Policy Change as a Discursive Problem," Post-Print halshs-01021551, HAL.
    5. Jurian Edelenbos & Arwin Van Buuren & Dik Roth & Madelinde Winnubst, 2017. "Stakeholder initiatives in flood risk management: exploring the role and impact of bottom-up initiatives in three ‘Room for the River’ projects in the Netherlands," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(1), pages 47-66, January.
    6. Ingolfur Blühdorn & Michael Deflorian, 2019. "The Collaborative Management of Sustained Unsustainability: On the Performance of Participatory Forms of Environmental Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-17, February.
    7. Saskia Bisschops & Raoul Beunen, 2019. "A new role for citizens’ initiatives: the difficulties in co-creating institutional change in urban planning," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(1), pages 72-87, January.
    8. Lieberman, Robert C., 2002. "Ideas, Institutions, and Political Order: Explaining Political Change," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 96(4), pages 697-712, December.
    9. Jan-Peter Voß & Adrian Smith & John Grin, 2009. "Designing long-term policy: rethinking transition management," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 275-302, November.
    10. Martin B. Carstensen, 2011. "Ideas are Not as Stable as Political Scientists Want Them to Be: A Theory of Incremental Ideational Change," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 59(3), pages 596-615, October.
    11. Hall, Peter A. & Taylor, Rosemary C. R., 1996. "Political science and the three new institutionalisms," MPIfG Discussion Paper 96/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    12. Niedziałkowski, Krzysztof & Beunen, Raoul, 2019. "The risky business of planning reform – The evolution of local spatial planning in Poland," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 11-20.
    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. Luis Alfonso Dau & Aya S. Chacar & Marjorie A. Lyles & Jiatao Li, 2022. "Informal institutions and international business: Toward an integrative research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 985-1010, August.
    2. repec:mje:mjejnl:v:12:y:2017:i:2:p:25-70 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Emil Evenhuis, 2017. "Institutional change in cities and regions: a path dependency approach," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 509-526.
    4. Baxter Jamie, 2019. "Leadership, Law and Development," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 119-158, January.
    5. Brian W. Head, 2011. "Governance for sustainable regions: can government meet the innovation policy challenge?," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(3), pages 219-230, August.
    6. Niedziałkowski, Krzysztof & Beunen, Raoul, 2019. "The risky business of planning reform – The evolution of local spatial planning in Poland," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 11-20.
    7. Chen, Huirong, 2022. "Linking institutional function with form: Distributional dynamics, disequilibrium, and rural land shareholding in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    8. Adekola, Olalekan & Grainger, Alan, 2023. "Bottom-up and bottom-top institutional changes in environmental management in the Niger Delta," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    9. André Lecours, 2014. "The Question of Federalism in Nepal," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 609-632.
    10. Lummina G. Horlings & Christian Lamker & Emma Puerari & Ward Rauws & Gwenda van der Vaart, 2021. "Citizen Engagement in Spatial Planning, Shaping Places Together," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-15, October.
    11. Vladimir Yefimov, 2017. "Comparative Historical Institutional Analysis of German, English and American Economics," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 13(2), pages 25-70.
    12. Bernhard Ebbinghaus, 2009. "Can Path Dependence Explain Institutional Change? Two Approaches Applied to Welfare State Reform," Chapters, in: Lars Magnusson & Jan Ottosson (ed.), The Evolution of Path Dependence, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Anand Menon, 2011. "Power, Institutions and the CSDP: The Promise of Institutionalist Theory," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 83-100, January.
    14. Kristina Babich & Daniel Béland, 2007. "Creating the Canada/Quebec Pension Plans: An Historical and Political Analysis," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 223, McMaster University.
    15. Luis Alfonso Dau & Jiatao Li & Marjorie A. Lyles & Aya S. Chacar, 2022. "Informal institutions and the international strategy of MNEs: Effects of institutional effectiveness, convergence, and distance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 1257-1281, August.
    16. Eleanor Beth Whyle & Jill Olivier, 2024. "Health system reform and path-dependency: how ideas constrained change in South Africa’s national health insurance policy process," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 57(3), pages 663-690, September.
    17. Ghimire Kanksha Mahadevia, 2018. "Path Dependence, Abnormal Times and Missed Opportunities: Case Studies of Catastrophic Natural Disasters From India and Nepal," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 31-76, January.
    18. Maucourant, Jérôme & Plociniczak, Sébastien, 2011. "Penser l’institution et le marché avec Karl Polanyi," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 10.
    19. Yefimov, Vladimir, 2009. "Comparative historical institutional analysis of German, English and American economics," MPRA Paper 48173, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Gregorio Rius-Sorolla & Sofía Estelles-Miguel & Carlos Rueda-Armengot, 2020. "Multivariable Supplier Segmentation in Sustainable Supply Chain Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-16, June.
    21. Maarten Hillebrandt, 2017. "Transparency as a Platform for Institutional Politics: The Case of the Council of the European Union," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 62-74.

    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:eee:lauspo:v:124:y:2023:i:c:s0264837722004525. 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: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    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.