<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The article presents the essence, goals and instruments of soft (informal, non-statutory) spatial planning, developed in the countries of Western Europe and relatively new in Poland. It targets areas with fuzzy borders (soft spaces) and areas between administration tiers. The article presents conceptual issues and non-formal planning tools used in Western Europe. The planning approaches which are generally described as “soft” are characterised by non-formalised and non-binding procedures, and by their focus on achieving a consensus. In the first part of the article presents the conceptual issues and further informal planning instruments used in Western European countries at different spatial scales The following section presents deficits of spatial planning of metropolitan areas and - against this background - the legitimacy of creating informal plans in Poland, using Metropolia Poznań as an example</p></abstract>

The article presents the essence, goals and instruments of soft (informal, non-statutory) spatial planning, developed in the countries of Western Europe and relatively new in Poland. It targets areas with fuzzy borders (soft spaces) and areas between administration tiers. The article presents conceptual issues and non-formal planning tools used in Western Europe. The planning approaches which are generally described as “soft” are characterised by non-formalised and non-binding procedures, and by their focus on achieving a consensus. In the first part of the article presents the conceptual issues and further informal planning instruments used in Western European countries at different spatial scales The following section presents deficits of spatial planning of metropolitan areas and - against this background - the legitimacy of creating informal plans in Poland, using Metropolia Poznań as an example

Soft planning for soft spaces. Concept of Poznań metropolitan area development – a case study

Miscellanea Geographica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The article presents the essence, goals and instruments of soft (informal, non-statutory) spatial planning, developed in the countries of Western Europe and...

Hard spatial planning (formal)	Soft spatial planning (informal)
Statutory	Non-statutory
Mandatory	Voluntary
Procedural	Outside official procedure
Normative	Conceptual, analytical
Regulatory, enforceable	Postulative, recommended
Hierarchical	Non-hierarchical
At a certain planning level	Between tiers
For units within boundaries administrative	Trans-border, inter-border
Of limited participation	By / among stakeholders, participatory
Created by authorized offices	Created by other organizations also
Poorly integrated with socio-economic planning	Possibilities of integration with socio-economic planning

Advantages / opportunities	Deficits / threats
• Planning for areas for which there is no mandatory planning requirement	• Poor awareness among decision makers of the need for informal plans
• The process of learning and further tightening cooperation	• Poor planning culture, frequent discounting on the part of the planning sector
• Creation of a shared spatial database	• Limited power of informal plans
• Inspiration for creating sectoral programs, masterplans, etc	• The necessity of a contract at the stage of implementing arrangements and recommendations
• Possible element of the planning system – Pre- planning	• Long-term effect, which does not meet current expectations (e.g. political)
• Possible / desirable broad public participation

Soft planning for soft spaces. Concept of Poznań metropolitan area development – a case study

Published Online: Sep 17, 2018

Page range: 181 - 186

Received: Mar 07, 2018

Accepted: Jun 17, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2018-0020

Keywords
spatial planning, soft spaces, metropolitan area, governance, territorial, contract, Poznań Metropolitan Area

© 2018 Tomasz Kaczmarek, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Hard (formal) spatial planning versus soft (informal) spatial planning: selected features

Strengths and weaknesses of informal spatial planning

Soft planning for soft spaces. Concept of Poznań metropolitan area development – a case study

Published Online: Sep 17, 2018

Page range: 181 - 186

Received: Mar 07, 2018

Accepted: Jun 17, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2018-0020

Keywordsspatial planning, soft spaces, metropolitan area, governance, territorial, contract, Poznań Metropolitan Area

© 2018 Tomasz Kaczmarek, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Hard (formal) spatial planning versus soft (informal) spatial planning: selected features

Strengths and weaknesses of informal spatial planning

Keywords
spatial planning, soft spaces, metropolitan area, governance, territorial, contract, Poznań Metropolitan Area