Χωρική ανακλιμάκωση και χωρικός σχεδιασμός: διακυρβενητικές προκλήσεις στο μητροπολιτικό σχεδιασμό της Αθήνας

Περίληψη

In this paper we explore the evolution of state spatial structures in metropolitan Athens and we discuss their relevance to the effectiveness with which the regional spatial planning framework defines and promotes its goals. In the first part we interrogate the metropolitan governance experience in the EU member states, defining the corresponding concepts and terms. The key role of the metropolitan scale in spatial regulation has been recognized in the majority of the respective national contexts as early as the post-war period, a process that resulted in the establishment of "Metropolitan governance" as a distinct tier of political administration. In the case of Athens, similar considerations appear in the national political agenda in the 1980s, coinciding with the review of the spatial planning framework at the metropolitan level. The timid reform record of that time, we argue, suggests the determining influence of arguments viewing unhindered urbanization as a shortcut to economic growth. In the following decades, a series of state spatial re-organization initiatives and land-use planning reforms were launched in Athens, reviewed in detail in this paper. The misalliance between these two distinct policy terrains sheds light on the unsuccessful attempts to promote the strategic goals for Athens in the 1990s and the 2000s. Explicit reference in made here to the hosting of the 2004 Olympic Games, a major undertaking aiming at strengthening the comparative advantages of the city as an international economic centre. The third part of the paper centres on the latest reorganization of state spatial structures, known as the "Kallikratis" programme (2010). According to this, a range of metropolitan governance duties were relegated to the regional level, turned political with a directly elected council and chair. The extent to which this rescaling initiative is addressing the stated spatial planning objectives for the metropolis is explored in view of the shift in spatial policy preoccupations as a result of the country’s sovereign debt crisis.