INTERNATIONAL

SEMINAR

Policy transfer, diffusion and translation in territorial governance and spatial planning in
the Global South

Convenors: Francesca Blanc, Giancarlo Cotella, Marcin Dąbrowski

Keywords: policy transfer, policy mobilities, policy translation, knowledge transfer, policy
diffusion, spatial planning, urban development, Global South.

Date and Venue: 26-27th October 2020, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

National and local territorial governance, spatial policies and planning are the results of the cross-
fertilisation through domestic and external inputs. The travelling of planning ideas, concepts, and
policy solutions across cities is commonplace, facilitated by international platforms, globally
operating institutions, bilateral inter-city relations and study visits or transnational city
networks. While being ubiquitous, this process of transnational learning remains problematic. It
tends to be biased towards export of Western ideas to the Global South, is underpinned by
uncertainty about the suitability of foreign solutions to the local context (Rose, 1993; Dolowitz &
Marsh, 2010), doubts about the scope for learning from ‘sanitised’ and uncritical best practice
examples (Stead, 2012) and by asymmetries of power and political agendas (Temenos & McCann,
2013; McCann & Ward, 2012). The processes of formulation of urban planning practices and
policies assimilate and translate best practices coming from different cities and countries results
in a ‘bricolage’ (Stone, 2017) that especially in the Global South echoes the mestizo culture of
many countries.
Against this background, this seminar invites scholars - in planning, urban and regional studies,
geography and related disciplines - to reflect on the cross-fertilisation and adaptation of spatial
planning policies in the process of transfer in the Global South. In particular, we welcome
contributions that inquire South-South and South-North transfers, in order to contribute to a
growing literature body that sheds light on how Global South countries shift ‘from import to
export’ of policies for cities and regions (Porto de Oliveira, Osorio Gonnet, Montero, Leite, 2019).
There are several knowledge gaps on that topic that call for a critical investigation. First, while it
is recognised that cities or states from the Global South are now a source of planning and
territorial governance ideas and practices ‘travelling’ to the Global North, as illustrated by the
spread of participatory budgeting from Brazil to Europe and beyond (Sintomer et al. 2008), we
still know little about how solutions from the Global South travel and are adapted to the local
contexts in which they land, how the knowledge is transferred and who is involved in this process.
Second, there is a need for a critical investigation of how ‘urban solutionism’ (Montero, 2018)
driven by the mainstream international urban agencies (UN-Habitat, World Bank, etc.) impacts

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the planning and territorial governance practice on the ground in the cities of the Global South.
Does it actually make a difference? Do the solutions imported that way achieve the expected
results when confronted with the local institutional, social, or spatial conditions? For instance,
the 2030 Agenda and its implementation through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG),
especially the SDG 11, offer an interesting framework to inquire the international influences in
the field of urban development and spatial planning. Influences of the ‘global philanthropy’ have
progressively shaped local and national policies and the ‘urban solutionism’ (Montero, 2018)
could be seen as a new form of colonialism. Thus, there is a need for a critical reflection on the
transfer of knowledge and/or policies through this channel that may involve hidden power
relations.
Thirdly, while there is a growing literature on transnational city networks (e.g. Kern et al. 2009),
there is limited research on the flow of knowledge through formalised or informal inter-city
networks and how this knowledge is ‘translated’ locally (see Stone, 2012) to drive change in
planning and territorial governance. Finally, focusing our attention to South-South and South-
North transfer also means bringing into question the hegemonic Western theoretical models and
paradigms and opening to a wider range of ‘experimentalism’ in policy transfer (Stone, 2017),
where informal practices could also be the content of the transfer.
This seminar will seek to bridge the above-mentioned research gaps and provide a space for
debating policy transfer in planning and territorial governance from the perspective of the Global
South. Contributions can be based on comparative analysis or on single case studies, focusing on
the national, regional or local levels. The focus could be on the agency, the process and/or the
content of transfer. The potential contributions could address one of the following topics in terms
of knowledge transfer/policy transfer (contributions on other topics related to the seminar’s
theme are also welcome):
- Territorial governance arrangements and models;
- Planning law and property rights;
- Spatial planning tools and related policies;
- (Sustainable) urban development;
- 2030 Agenda and the role of international organizations;
- Urban climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience;
- Informal settlements;
- Spatial justice and right to the city.

Please submit your abstracts (600-800 words) to Francesca Blanc (f.blanc-1@tudelft.nl) by May
the 17th, 2020.
In order to allow for a more robust discussion during the seminar and produce a tangible output
from the event, the contributors will be required to produce full papers (around 7.000 words
including references) by September the 10th, 2020. The accepted contributions will be
assembled in a special issue proposal, to be submitted to the attention of a SCOPUS-indexed
scientific journal. Each paper will be subject to the peer-review process, as per the usual
procedures of the selected journal.

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Time schedule
20 April - Opening of the public Call
17 May - Deadline for Abstracts submission
1 June - Notification to admitted Abstracts
10 September - Deadline for Papers submission
26-27 October - The Seminar takes place!

References:
- Dolowitz, D. P., & Marsh, D. (2000). Learning from abroad: The role of policy transfer in
contemporary policy-making. Governance, 13(1), 5-23.
- Galland, D., & Elinbaum, P. (2018). A “Field” Under Construction: The State of Planning in
Latin America and the Southern Turn in Planning. Disp, 54(1), 18–24.
- Kern, K., & Bulkeley, H. (2009). Cities, Europeanization and multi-level governance:
governing climate change through transnational municipal networks. JCMS: Journal of
Common Market Studies, 47(2), 309-332.
- McCann, E., & Ward, K. (2012). Policy assemblages, mobilities and mutations: Toward a
multidisciplinary conversation. Political studies review, 10(3), 325-332.
- Montero, S. (2018). Leveraging Bogotá: Sustainable development, global philanthropy
and the rise of urban solutionism. Urban Studies 00(0), 1-19.
- Porto de Oliveira, O., Osorio Gonnet, C., Montero, S., Leite Kerches da Silva, K. (2019). Latin
America and policy diffusion: from import to export. Routledge Studies in Latin American
Politics, Routledge.
- Sintomer, Y., Herzberg, C., & Röcke, A. (2008). Participatory budgeting in Europe:
potentials and challenges. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32(1),
164-178.
- Stone, D. (2012). Transfer and translation of policy. Policy studies, 33(6), 483-499.
- Stone, D. (2017). Understanding the transfer of policy failure: bricolage, experimentalism
and translation. Policy & Politics, 45(1), 55-70.
- Temenos, C., & McCann, E. (2013). Geographies of policy mobilities. Geography Compass,
7(5), 344-357.