Suchergebnisse

From within the European Union integration project, a shared spatial development agenda has emerged. From the beginning of the European Spatial Development Perspective process in 1989, to the post-enlargement Territorial Agenda of 2007, in a non-binding policy context of inexistent formal competencies, member-states agreed on a shared vision, spatial development objectives and planning principles for the EU territory. This catalysed the institutionalisation of European Spatial Planning. Fuelled by processes of socialisation framed within a platform for common policy learning the latter produced an undeniable cultural footprint. Growing attention has been given to the impact that this process has had on domestic planning systems and institutions among member-states. This impact is widely referred to as the Europeanisation of planning. This thesis examines the Portuguese National Spatial Planning Policy Programme (PNPOT) under the light of the hypothetical causal relationship between the Europeanisation of planning and institutional culture change in Portugal. As evidence mounts of innovation in policy discourse, conceptual paradigms, legal framework and practices, the research focus shifts to the domestic drivers, mechanisms, key actors and their motivations, enabling factors and obstacles to culture change. The outcome is a portrait of the contemporary challenges faced by planning in Portugal. The latter highlights the fragilities of the planning-related policy learning dynamics, capacity-building processes, inter-institutional coordination deficit and structural shortcomings in terms of the communicational capacity and the adaptational ability of institutions and practitioners in an evolving public policy context. Finally, although a policysteered process, planning culture change in Portugal, if to prevail, depends on the mobilisation of the community of planners. Through a communicative power framework they must work alongside central and local government and citizens in an inclusive spirit of mutual learning and partnership. For a culture change in planning to have any effect in shaping places, it must first shape minds.

As the role of government in the society is undergoing continuous change, consensus is starting to build around the potential that collaborative technologies have in the field of governance and policy modeling. For effective citizen empowerment and participation to become mainstream, at a greater scale, several challenges will have to be faced, which will require new tools to be developed. The research questions underlying the present paper are: which new ICT-enabled governance models and methods of monitoring, interaction, collaboration for policy making and enforcement are emerging, and which policy modelling mechanisms can be implemented in order to effectively involve citizens in decision making? The paper starts addressing these issues by defining the problem statement and discussing the changing role of the government in the Information Society, also proposing some elements for a conceptualisation of ICT for governance and policy modelling. It further presents the evolving debate on the e-Government and e-Governance agenda developments, as well as the state of the art and the limitations of research in these fields. Main emerging trends and future prospects within the evolving public sector are then anticipated in order to draw some preliminary conclusions outlining the challenges ahead and future research in the field of ICT for governance and policy modelling. © 2012 IEEE.