Towards regional land-use management: the design process of policy instruments for collective action

This article explores the collaborative design process of policy instruments for sustainable land-use management in Germany. While statutory plans remain central to guide land use in Germany, network approaches on the regional level gain importance as they reflect the functional relations of land and housing markets. This article presents a collaborative design process of policy instruments in a regional governance network aiming to manage the interdependencies that arise from the institutional collective action dilemma of regional land-use management. The main objective of the article is to develop a better understanding of the impact of collectively held narratives about collaborative risk, scalar imaginaries and timeliness on the design of policy instruments. The analysis draws on expert interviews and a review of policy documents. Our findings showcase the developed policy instruments, which are sermon-based, deploy the power of persuasion and work through the dissemination of information. Ultimately, the article presents four design logics that illuminate how policy instruments act as markers of change for planners by foregrounding a knowledge-first approach, which however translates into an evidence-without-consequence logic. This is because instruments lack network enforcement and depend on voluntary local ratification, which blurs regional accountability and produces institutional fragility tied to project-based pragmatism.