Print Email Facebook Twitter Governing ‘places that don’t matter’: agonistic spatial planning practices in Finnish peripheral regions Title Governing ‘places that don’t matter’: agonistic spatial planning practices in Finnish peripheral regions Author Mattila, Hanna (Aalto University; University of Minnesota) Purkarthofer, E. (TU Delft Spatial Planning and Strategy; Aalto University) Humer, Alois (Universität Wien; Aalto University) Date 2020 Abstract Economic geographer Andrés Rodríguez-Pose argued recently that declining peripheries are increasingly becoming ‘places that don’t matter’ in the formation or implementation of national or European Union (EU) regional policies. In turn, this might result in a triumph of populist anti-establishment movements in peripheries, posing a threat to well-being in both the prospering and the declining regions. We argue that ‘places that don’t matter’ also exist in Finland, a country that has a long tradition of regional policy and equalizing welfare schemes. Our focus is on administration rather than politics, however. We look at the Finnish peripheral regions of Kainuu and Lapland, discussing the practices of spatial planners, who influence and implement EU and national regional policies in these regions. We ask how strategic spatial planning in Kainuu and Lapland is affected by the revengeful and antagonistic attitudes towards the ‘elites’ who, allegedly, are not directing a sufficient amount of attention to the peripheries. We look at the planning practices and institutional settings within which they work from the perspective of agonistic planning theory, asking whether and how spatial planners can turn the antagonistic and potentially revengeful attitudes into productive forces that could positively affect spatial development in these regions. Subject agonistic planningKainuuLaplandspatial planningperipheryregional planningregional policyFinland To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:89188f15-017a-4835-92c2-99c0a53be7d8 DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2020.1857824 ISSN 2162-2671 Source Territory, Politics, Governance, 2020 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2020 Hanna Mattila, E. Purkarthofer, Alois Humer Files PDF Governing_places_that_don ... egions.pdf 1.12 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:89188f15-017a-4835-92c2-99c0a53be7d8/datastream/OBJ/view