homogenous plain of Christaller’s hexagons. Cooke (1979) inspired by Savage et al. (1987,
cf. Cooke 1979, 10) defined locality as a product of supralocal structures, which may give
rise to local specificity. Locality is a base from which subjects can exercise their capacity
for pro-activity by making effective individual and collective interventions (Cooke 1979,
12).
Locality concept represents a clear shift towards a network paradigm and pro-active
planning approach of the 1990s based on encouragement of different groups in the society
and public participation. It is now widely understood, that planning is an interactive
process, undertaken in social context, rather than a purely technical process of design,
analysis and management (Healey 1997, 65).
Spatial planning should maintain or transform public discourses about the qualities
of places (Healey 1997, 61). This means that normative are created during the planning
process and should meet local needs. Planning could create new relational links between
networks and build new systems of meaning, new cultural references. Planning becomes a
part of the process, which both reflects and potentially shapes the relations and discourses,
the social and intellectual capital through which links are made between networks to
address matters of shared concern at the level of neighbourhoods, towns and urban regions
(ibid.).
John Friedmann (1992) himself has changed the paradigm and stresses importance
of building networks between social entrepreneurs, leaders, and politicians representing
different fields of life. The same applies to networking between communities: well
developed institutional coherence through which shared problems can be collectively
addressed (Healey 1997, 33).
This new approach has been especially important in the Nordic countries and
Northern Europe in general, where governance has been historically decentralised (Holt-
Jensen, 1996) and local self- governments are in most countries rather small by their
population. This has pushed communities into close co-operation, so that many CI projects
have been carried out as joint projects, driven by the needs of the local population or
enterprises.