Towards regional land-use management: the design process of policy instruments for collective action

ILS researchers Angelika Münter and Peter Stroms-van der Vlugt, together with colleagues from TU Dortmund University, have published an article in the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning. Drawing on the case of the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg/Ahrweiler region, it examines how shared narratives shape the design of inter-municipal policy instruments for sustainable land-use management. Building on theories of collaborative governance, the paper shows that collaboratively designed soft policy instruments, such as a regional density concept, establish a shared knowledge base and enable more evidence-informed discussion of planning conflicts. They create opportunities to coordinate responses to the tension between housing provision and reducing land take across the region. However, inter-municipal competition, a lack of binding commitments and reliance on project-based funding constrain implementation, which remains dependent on voluntary local ratification. Without institutionalized regional capacities and mechanisms for sharing costs and benefits, jointly developed knowledge does not automatically translate into collective action. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2026.2740012. Further current selected papers can be found here.