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G. Bonvissuto:
"The Role of the Public Sector in Spatial Planning in Austria";
Vortrag: Public Life - Towards a politics of care. Bodies. Place. Matter., Wien; 17.04.2015 - 18.04.2015.

Arising government failures in the 1970ies weakened the trust in government interventions and shifted the focus to private sector activities. Traditionally, in Austria spatial planning is assigned to the public sector. So far, however, there has been little discussion on connections between shifts in the public sector and changes in the Austrian spatial planning system.
Hence, at first the study seeks to clarify why spatial planning generally is a public task. Therefore, on the one hand a historical overview of spatial planning and public sector activities is given. On the other hand a normative approach helps to analyze the reasons for spatial planning. The results show that spatial planning efforts arose at a time when public sector interventions enjoyed strong demand. The normative approach justifies spatial planning as public task in every single case of market failure; especially concerning public goods and externalities.
The second part deals with the question how tasks of spatial planning have been fulfilled. The main focus lies in a stakeholder analysis. Consequently, a positive approach is used. Current renewals of formal and informal agreements show changes in the Austrian spatial planning system. However, until now no evident reason has been investigated for the change. The case study, hence, is restricted to the Austrian system of spatial planning. The results, shown in a time diagram, indicate especially a shift from government to governance and an increase in public participation. A growing importance of regional development as well as effects of Globalization can be named as reasons.

spatial planning, public sector, autonomous sector, top-down, bottom-up