Multi-level geographies of trans-boundary cooperation in Catalonia: Governance, planning and ‘cross-border spaces of regionalist engagement’

This chapter discusses whether practices of trans-boundary cooperation in the European Union can lead to new types of spatial planning and territorial development strategies and new forms of trans-boundary territorial governance, focusing on the case of Catalonia in Spain. It analyses how trans-boundary cooperation has been mobilised by the local and regional governmental actors of a particular region, Catalonia— one of Spain’s Autonomous Communities— to support broadly conceived political, economic and cultural goals. The chapter outlines the multiple types and geographies of trans-boundary cooperation in which Catalan local and regional public actors have engaged. It discusses whether the participation of Catalan public actors in various forms of trans-boundary cooperation has led to rescaled, innovative forms of spatial planning, territorial development and governance. The chapter describes how the engagement of actors in such forms of cooperation is part of the search for a strengthened political and economic role for the region in the Mediterranean and in Europe.