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P. Hirschler, S. Neff:
"Diversity Management In Spatial Development: A New Approach Or Just Changing The Perspective In Austria´s Planning Practice";
Talk: ACSP-AESOP 4th Joint Congress, Chicago, Illinois, USA; 07-06-2008 - 07-11-2008; in: "Book of Abstracts for presentation at the ACSP-AESOP 4th Joint Congress Chicago, Illinois ~ July 6-11, 2008", (2008), Paper ID 13.

In 1999 the European Union (EU) declared gender mainstreaming as
a main goal of their politics and implemented it in their funding
politics. By co-financing spatial development projects this started to
influence planning practice in Austria. But history showed that taking
into account the gender perspectives is far off mainstream. Women´s
contribution to spatial development is significant, but they are a
minority in decision-making and planning so their influence is
limited.
Basically diversity issues in planning are manifold and should be
taken into account in all actions. The question is how to implement
the cross-sectional matter of diversity management in planning and
decision making as there is no universal recipe for implementation.
The principle of mainstreaming, which consists of taking
systematic account of the differences between the conditions,
situations and society has to be applied in all policies and actions.
Achieving equality in spatial development will take some effort. The
society should continue to initiate activities to empower divers
groups to become active in the socio-economic development (e. g. by
participation, projects, expertise and assistance). Some projects in
Austria showed how gender mainstreaming and diversity
management can work in practice, by identifying fields for
intervention and developing implementation strategies. Examples can
be found on the regional planning level by implementing a project
manager for gender mainstreaming in the Lungau or the project
GEKO gender sensible cooperation in the EUREGIO
Weinviertel-South Moravia-West Slovakia, but also in local planning
activities where divers requirements were specially considered within
the master plan for the city development project on the Flugfeld
Aspern. A sustained effort by integrating equal opportunities into
spatial development will bring major benefits not only to lives of
individuals, but also to the viability and sustainability of local
economies and communities throughout Europe.
Concluding the integration of diversity management in spatial
development is no new approach in planning, but nevertheless it
changed the perspective of development policies in Austria. To
ensure endogenous development, planners, stakeholders and
decision-makers have to observe the different needs and expectations
of people to secure equality in all their concepts and policies.

http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/upp/congress/BookofAcceptedAbstracts.pdf