The spatial regulation of economic and regional development in Greece from the Maastricht Treaty to the crisis: a critical review of the Greek policy for spatial planning

Abstract

Since the 1990’s Greece knows a radical economic transformation which can be briefly described by a rapid structural tertiarisation, a shift in the main paradigm for economic and development policy and also by a new spatiality of production and interregional relations. Spatial planning, among other policies, has been critical in the transition to a new development mode, so much for the domestic system as a whole, as much as for the regions. Ever since first European unification up to the burst of the fiscal crisis, lack of monitoring and state intervention, but also, delayed legislations and urgent reforms explain aspects of a new dialectic between space, state and development, a subject that is not often discussed in Greek literature. The purpose of this essay is via a political economy perspective, to provide with an alternative interpretation of the Greek policy for spatial planning in a European context and to explore the underlying rationality of the strategies applied regarding the regions. According to main conclusion, in the case of Greece, strategy for spatial planning has been activated mainly due to European challenges, and it has been complying ritually and selectively to convey more goals for economic efficiency rather than spatial justice.