@unpublished{theses_frw4055,
          author = {Coen Keijzer},
            year = {2022},
           title = {The quest for spatial quality},
        abstract = {The pressure on the Dutch (planning) landscape seems to be at an all-time high with a plurality of (future) 
spatial challenges and transitions affecting the quality of spaces; quality which citizens increasingly 
desire. This development has resulted in a renewed appreciation in spatial quality within Dutch national 
spatial planning. A multitude of programmes have recently been introduced that feature spatial quality as 
(part of) their main objective. This quest for spatial quality is, however, not new as it was already on the 
political agenda during the 1980s, finding its first operationalization within policy in 1988. Since then, its 
conceptualization and position has developed and changed. This study aims to explore this development 
process starting with its conception in the 1980s until the year 2020. A discourse analysis paired with the 
policy arrangements approach are used and adapted to investigate whether a new discourse has been able 
to instigate change by influencing the available resources, actor coalitions and institutions.
The findings demonstrate that discursive shifts in spatial quality follow a wave-like pattern starting with 
efforts to instigate spatial quality in the dominant Dutch national spatial planning discourse during the 
1980s, followed by a period of hegemony in the 1990s and a subsequent downfall during the late 2000s 
and onwards. Recent years have experienced a revival in appreciation and interest in the topic with new 
actors aiming to instigate a new discourse. Overall, the findings indicate that when a discursive shift place 
took place, interactions with all other policy arrangement dimensions occurred, suggesting the need for 
resonance with all dimensions for the successful adoption of a new discourse on spatial quality in Dutch 
national spatial planning. For the successful implementation of recent initiatives to install a new discourse 
on spatial quality (and to subsequently improve its positioning) it is recommended that resonance is 
created with all other dimensions of a policy arrangement.},
             url = {https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/4055/}
}