A conceptual framework to analyse political processes in the field of regional open space policy and planning

Abstract

Green open spaces provide important ecosystem services. They are a substantial part of green and blue infrastructure and play an important role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Nevertheless, as a consequence of soil sealing due to mobility, industrial, and settlement infrastructure, these open spaces are constantly threatened by powerful interests, especially in densely populated areas such as conurbations. Surprisingly, there are positive examples where green and blue open spaces are secured, protected, and enhanced. But what are the political dynamics leading to far-reaching decisions, allowing a network of open spaces to emerge and evolve over time?

Unlike at the urban level, where green open space planning and the underlying political dynamics have been widely studied, open space networks at a regional scale are rarely looked into from a political perspective (Keil & Macdonald 2016, p. 1518). The aim of the presentation is to introduce a framework that allows for analysing the political processes that lead to establishing and further developing regional open space concepts. It draws on political process theory, namely the Multiple-Streams-Framework developed by the US-American political scientist John W. Kingdon (1984). This framework consists of five key elements that have been adapted to suit the characteristics of regional space policy. Processes can be analytically separated into three streams: the problem stream, the policy stream and the political stream. Coupled with the help of a policy entrepreneur, the streams can converge and a window of opportunity opens where a substantial change in policy is possible to occur.

By adopting a systemic perspective evolving over time (Orach & Schlüter 2016, p.18; Zahariadis et al. 2023, p. 12), the adapted Multiple-Streams-Framework can take into account the following features of regional open space policy:

• intertwined regional and municipal governance structures
• actors, namely from the public and private sectors, and their specific institutional configuration
• past and current environmental and spatial planning policies and their translocal mobility
• bounded rationalities and power asymmetries in planning processes

The specific conceptual approach is currently being applied to three cases in Germany: the Emscher Landscape Park, the Regional Park RheinMain, and the Green Ring Leipzig. The presentation will conclude by giving insights into the operationalisation of the adapted framework and preliminary results from the qualitative empirical research so far.