Book Review Stead, D., Geerlings, H. and Meijers, E. (eds.) Policy integration in practice: The integration of land use planning, transport and environmental policy-making in Denmark, England and Germany

Abstract

Policy integration, i.e. the co-ordination of policies by different levels of government and government departments, has received growing attention at a time of growing interdependency between countries and regions yet increasing fragmentation of responsibility, sharpening goal conflicts and diverging interests between countries, regions, government agencies and public, semi-public and private stakeholders and the emergence of new, over-arching policy challenges, such as climate change and energy scarcity. A book on the state and future prospects of policy integration in three critical areas of policy making, land use, transport and environment, is therefore more than welcome. The book reviewed here aims at exploring the necessary conditions for integration between the three policy fields and the mechanisms or tools that may support policy integration from a sustainability perspective. The book presents results of a study funded by the Netherlands Agency for Energy and the Environment as part of their Regional Transport Performance research programme. It is the work of an international team of researchers led by editors associated with the OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies at Delft University of Technology and the Faculty of Social Sciences of Erasmus University Rotterdam.