Abstract
Those who promote spatial planning or spatial policy at the European level have
increasingly done so under the banner of ‘territorial cohesion’. Since the inclusion of this
term in the draft Constitution as an objective of the European Union, territorial cohesion
has drawn the attention of an increasing number of actors and interests. By virtue of its
vague but undeniably positive connotation, it is emerging as a successful metaphor in
European policy discourse. In this paper it is argued that the territorial cohesion policy
process should be understood in terms of the opportunities the concept presents to
individual actors to solve contingent problems. Linking the ‘solution’ of territorial
cohesion to different problems (garbage can model) has resulted in the production of a
plurality of oftentimes mutually exclusive interpretations. Nevertheless, in the discursive
struggle for hegemony between these interpretations, some progress is being made
towards a common understanding.