Between Landscape Rhetorics and ‘Scalar Traps’: The Asymmetric Governance of Contentious Urban Development

Abstract

This paper examines the contested urban development case of the Tor Marancia estate in Rome, a strategically located green area at the city’s centre that was targeted for high-density construction. In February 2001, political parties, NGOs, and civil society associations jointly celebrated the estate’s “salvation,” claiming that its landscape and heritage value had led to its protection. However, the author questions what really occurred: who sought the area’s exploitation, what became of the erased building rights, and whether landscape values truly determined the outcome. Based on research into the role of landscape in planning processes, the study highlights the complexity of governance and participation in contentious urban development, where multiple actors converge rhetorically on landscape protection while underlying power relations and re-scaling processes shape actual results. The analysis introduces the notion of “scalar traps” to describe how asymmetric governance across spatial and political levels influences planning outcomes, revealing that the apparent consensus over landscape values masked deeper conflicts and unresolved development rights.