Print Email Facebook Twitter The Dutch ‘Gateway to Europe’ spatial policy narrative, 1980–2020: a systematic review Title The Dutch ‘Gateway to Europe’ spatial policy narrative, 1980–2020: a systematic review Author Nefs, Merten (TU Delft Spatial Planning and Strategy) Zonneveld, W.A.M. (TU Delft Spatial Planning and Strategy) Gerretsen, Paul (Vereniging Deltametropool (Association Deltametropolis)) Date 2022 Abstract Like other countries with large ports, the Netherlands developed a policy narrative to acquire a key position in global value chains starting in the 1980s, through the spatial development of its hinterland logistics complex. The negative environmental effects of logistics, such as landscape transformation and congestion, have increasingly come to be seen as spatial policy problems. The literature on policy narratives emphasizes the importance of balanced trade-offs and learning from alternative views. In this paper, we discuss why the ‘Gateway to Europe’ narrative has remained in place. This paper systematically reviews spatial planning documents, advisory reports and academic papers between 1980 and 2020 to develop a chronology of logistics planning concepts pertaining to economic and technological milestones. It also maps policy influences, aiming to identify underlying causal policy theories on logistics development and its spatial-environmental effects. We determine that critical reports have been structurally ignored, challenges have been outsourced and advocacy coalitions have been unbalanced, increasing path dependency and risking a spatial-economic lock-in. Looking at the ‘Gateway to Europe’, we point to pitfalls in the policy narrative and the policy-learning process, enabling policymakers to avoid them in the future. Subject hinterland logisticsquality of lifepolicy narrativespatial planningsystematic reviewGateway to Europe To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f4902d14-f8cc-4e5f-8a8b-16fe3f18852b DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2022.2053879 ISSN 1466-4518 Source Planning Perspectives: an international journal of history, planning and the environment, 38 (1), 49-68 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2022 Merten Nefs, W.A.M. Zonneveld, Paul Gerretsen Files PDF The_Dutch_Gateway_to_Euro ... review.pdf 2.87 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:f4902d14-f8cc-4e5f-8a8b-16fe3f18852b/datastream/OBJ/view