THE PLACE OF EUROPE IN CONTEMPORARY SPATIAL STRATEGY MAKING

Within Western Europe, there is currently a reemergence of strategic s patial planning at the urban region scale. These new exercises in maki ng strategic plans are characterized by vigorous efforts to build cohe sive alliances including new stakeholders, often accompanied by well d eveloped spatial images which express the position of urban regions. W ithin the policy discourses surrounding these processes, the metaphor of 'Europe' is frequently called into play. This has been interpreted by many commentators as a sign of a 'marketing style' in spatial plann ing, a form of newly emerging 'entrepreneurial' governance practices. In this article, drawing on a study of innovation in spatial strategy making in Europe, it is argued that the metaphor reflects different co nceptions of space, place and territory, and is being used to perform different kinds of organizational work.