Polycentricity in the North-eastern Periphery of the EU Territory

Polycentricity, a key element of the European Spatial Development Perspective, has become an increasingly dominant concept in supra-national, national and regional spatial planning activities. However, the concept's fuzzy and imprecise nature opens doors for it to be used in widely different ways, in diverse contexts and by different professional communities such as researchers, planners and policy-makers. This article investigates the process of adoption of polycentricity at the level of an individual country, Finland, and explores its spatial characteristics and development in terms of an interpretive framework informed by the notion of polycentricity. The initial focus is on the theoretical foundations of the concept of polycentricity and its status as a transdiscursive boundary concept between research and policy-making. This is followed by a review of Finnish and European interpretations of polycentricity as an example of how adaptations to prevailing spatial and institutional conditions are reflected in the process of Europeanization of spatial planning at the level of individual countries. After clarifying the potential for, and challenges of, a polycentricity-based strategy in more empirical terms, using eastern Finland as a case in point, the article concludes with an assessment of the suitability of a polycentricity-based strategy for Finnish conditions, and highlights the findings' implications for a European-wide spatial strategy.