The geography behind planning conformance
Distribution of resources as the main factor of success in strategic planning
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21601249 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas Bühler (0000-0002-6109-8377, Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, corresponding author), Louis Kalisky (Université Marie et Louis Pasteur), Léo Hoffbeck (Université Marie et Louis Pasteur), Annabel Richeton (Université Marie et Louis Pasteur), Morgane Roblet (Université Marie et Louis Pasteur), Gilles Vuidel (0000-0001-6330-6136, Université Marie et Louis Pasteur) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 805-823 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Planning Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0965-4313 • E-ISSN: 1469-5944 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09654313.2025.2607060 |
| OpenAlex | W7118562842 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
Studies of the material effectiveness of plans – or planning conformance – have been around since the early days of planning as an academic field although they became very marginal between the 1990s and the mid-2010s. This paper contributes to the recent renewed interest in the study of conformance by comparing the intentions and outcomes (9 years on) of 54 French inter-municipal strategic plans (SCoTs). In 2010, in order to strengthen these strategic documents, the French central government allowed them to impose two regulatory, binding and spatially explicit criteria on lower-level documents: housing density thresholds and numbers of housing units to be built. The main results indicate a low level of overall conformance – although comparable to previous studies of land-use plans – accompanied by a wide variety of local situations. These can be explained primarily by geographical, institutional, and political factors. Among the factors identified in the literature, the rural-urban gradient (and the resource inequalities it entails) is by far the most statistically explanatory of strategic planning conformance
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| Highly cited | No |
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