Abstract
Against the background of urban growth and transformation, coordinating spatial development across core city boundaries is a reinforced challenge for urban and regional planners. This study applies a multi-level governance framework to explore facilitators and constraints of urban-rural policy coordination and the institutional structure of urban decision-making contexts in municipal planning. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative text analysis with statistical analysis, we analysed 230 local spatial plans from 119 medium-sized cities across 18 European countries. Results indicate that the vertical allocation of decision-making powers across levels of government and experiences of institutionalised cooperation within city-regional and intermediate governance bodies are key to explaining urban-rural coordination. These findings increase our understanding of the institutional conditions under which city-regional coordination in spatial development can be achieved and provide comparative insights for advancing city-regional governance.