Introduction to territorial governance

Territorial governance is the political decision-making process that allocates land use and spatial development rights, which are fundamental for the organisation of social life. This process is historically associated with spatial planning, which has always been the main technique available to and in support of territorial governance. Its political nature means that territorial governance is highly dependent on the institutional context in which it is established. Thus, while in principle governments have the power to regulate how land is to be divided, developed and used, their authority is increasingly challenged by plural, “soft” and less usual forms of decision-making. The set of political, technical and social practices that contribute to the functioning of territorial governance in a given institutional context gives rise to an institutional technology, recognized as a system of territorial governance (and/or, by extension, of spatial planning). The handbook intends to move across the complexity of these issues.