Naples: A city away from water: The role of path dependence in the history of Naples

Over time, a large number of stakeholders have affected the Italian port city of Naples. The millenary history of Naples reveals a port that has been strongly intertwined with the city. Yet, recent history shows a different story. The historical investigation analysed in this article points out a conflict between several different authorities...

Resilience and Path Dependence: A Comparative Study of the Port Cities of London, Hamburg, and Philadelphia

Port spaces, functions, and interests have shaped the growth and development of many cities around the world. At times, different stakeholders—private and public, local, regional, national and global—have collaborated to assure the continuity of port functions in old and new locations and, if the port relocates or if that effort fails, to...

Defending the past by challenging the future: spatial and institutional path dependencies in the Naples port-city region

Historical paths matter in port-city regions. Here, spatial patterns and governance arrangements are path dependent to the point that once certain paths have been established, these become hard to change. This defines a condition of institutional inertia that plays a significant role in preventing any form of spatial change. Naples is an...

Introduction: historical institutionalist perspectives on European spatial planning

In a context where European integration is put into question, under the weight of external (migration, safety issues, economic) and centrifugal forces (Brexit, growing Euroscepticism), European spatial planning has been somewhat sidelined in the debates on the European Union’s goals, cohesion and future. This special issue aims to contribute...

CRONWE: first attempts to institutionalize European spatial planning

This paper is about a relatively unknown north-west European organization of spatial planning: the (standing) Conference for Spatial Planning in North-Western Europe. The founders of CRONWE tried to create a European spatial planning approach that could influence spatial development in the early years of European integration as the European...

The development of strategic spatial planning in Central and Eastern Europe: between path dependence, European influence, and domestic politics

Focusing on three of the Central and Eastern European countries–Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary–the paper investigates the evolution of spatial planning systems and the introduction of strategic planning practices from the beginning of the post-communist transition in the early 1990s to the present. It sheds new light on this issue by...

A historical institutionalist account of European spatial planning

This paper explains the limited success of the European Spatial Development Perspective pointing to fault lines in the institutional architecture of European integration and the view that the EU has no business in national spatial planning. So, along with the experts at the Commission, the EU has been sidelined. Spending departments at both...

A Historical Institutionalist Framework for European Spatial Planning

Sorensen invokes historical institutionalism as a theoretical framework. This paper does so revisiting the making of the European SpatialDevelopment Perspective of 1990s vintage and the subsequent Territorial Agenda of the European Union. The context is EU Cohesion policy. Firstthe paper presents the theoretical framework. Then it explains why...