Beyond fragmentation: new concepts for urban–rural development

Dutch spatial policy has typically been characterised by striving for developing town and country as separate spatial entities. Spatial fragmentation has always been an anathema for planners. Leading plan concepts like the compact city and the Green Heart reflect the idea of separate cities surrounded by green, open space. However, there is a widening gap between these spatial concepts and spatial reality. The current policy has not effectively addressed the dynamics of the network society and what occurs is different from the policy itself. Therefore, another type of process-oriented concept is needed. In this paper we discuss a set of process-oriented concepts, defined as network concepts. These concepts give rise to a much more complex spatial organisation. That does not imply that there is no longer any well-organised space. The network approach has well defined principles for spatial organisation. This paper thus makes the argument for the reconsideration of the idea of fragmentation.