Land use challenges, sustainability and the spatial planning balancing act: Insights from Sweden and Switzerland

Spatial planning has gone through significant shifts in recent years. Planners today face land use challenges, such as sprawl reduction and mixed use redevelopment, which must be reconciled with technological innovations and changing political and economic pressures. At the same time, their end goal is not just to support economic growth, but also to improve people’s health and social well-being in a place-based framework. Keeping in mind the debate on equity, participation and the achievement of sustainable well-being for all, this paper looks at these issues from both a theoretical point of view, as well as their practical implementation. It critically examines some aspects of spatial planning and territorial governance from Sweden and Switzerland, discussing their flaws and contradictions, as well as pointing out positive features. Overall, the paper suggests that current spatial planning philosophy should privilege an integrated holistic approach, avoiding policies that, in the name of increased speed and efficiency, might lead to partiality, randomness and fragmentation.