Spatial planning strategies struggle to meet demands network society?

During one of our “search sessions” on random topics on google scholar, we stumbled upon an interesting article written by Healey, P.: “Network Complexity and the Imaginative Power of Strategic Spatial Planning.”

Not being an expert in both matters it was interesting to see how a discipline struggles to comply with knowledge from another science. As suggested by the article, spatial planning is still theoretically struggling to give answers to the characteristics of the network society.

Debate: the network society and implications for spatial planning?

The world has changed. Societies have changed. Concepts for spatial planning remained untouched. In order to know how planning could adapt to the challenges of the network society, one needs to define the specifics of this society. The article argues that a network society is fluid, open, complex and experiences multiple time-space relations.

How to answer the challenges?

Healey critiques the determinism resulting from the usage of architectural concepts for spatial organization. She suggests to find answers in sociological theory and/or geography studies. Once again a call for a multidisciplinary approach. Below is an attempt to translate the theoretical concepts into design strategies.

We apologize for this extremely theoretical post. Some like that however.

Spatial planning strategic challenges to comply with network society - free, based on Healeys publication mentioned in the article