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Towards Comprehensive Spatial Development in Europe: A Critical View from Finland

This article critically examines how the assumptions about “comprehensive spatial development” are realised in the practices of zone-based development through a case study on regional development zones (RDZs) in Finland. In European spatial development, a zone-based framework that builds on connecting infrastructure (often referred to as a development corridor in an international context) has been discussed as a tool to promote both competitive and balanced development and to more efficiently utilise the existing infrastructure. Furthermore, in Finnish policy rhetoric, RDZs are seen as potential tools in developing simultaneously economically, socially and environmentally sustainable spatial structure. In the practices of regional development, however, these comprehensive goals are so far more aspirational than practised reality. There is a disconnection between the standard physical planning and new “soft” development framework, a disconnection between national and regional objectives, a lack of nationally coordinated policies, and a lagging completion of the institutional framework for comprehensive spatial development.