Visioning in governance rescaling: role and challenges of regional design in interactive governance

This contribution explores the concept of governance re-scaling in order to explain the relevance of regional design in this context. By investigating processes of governance rescaling across Europe, the concept of interactive governance will be used as the conceptual framework for identifying interactions between statutory planning processes and the formation of soft spaces of governance across local boundaries. In particular, focusing on images and visions as elements of interactive governance, the author investigates the interrelation between regional design, governance and planning. In this framework, the author argues that visioning and regional design practices can matter for both shaping of regional boundaries and conceiving shared visions of their spatial development.