Even agents possessed of free will must—if rational—be substantially predictable. However, there will be some situations where the act-choices of rational agents will not be predictable—for example, in circumstances of underdetermination due to insufficient information. And moreover, unpredictability can also result in situations of analysis overdetermination that arise when equally cogent analyses yield disparate results, as in the example of Dr. Psychic Psycho. The Prisoner's Dilemma affords yet another instance of this. Clearly, when determination fails even after rationality has had its say, then rationality's predictive power is exhausted! Fortunately, however, that does not mean that our human resources of issue-resolution are at the end of their tether.

There was little science policy in the past. Science and technology developed at their own pace. Science policy is now required, not just on grounds of the cost of science, but also because problems of esthetics and of environmental externalities are raised. There are also questions posed by the recruitment of scientists, the structure of research and, above all, priorities in scientific development. There has also to be an analysis of the level—regional, national, plurinational, worldwide—at which decisions on science should be taken. If this is not done through science policy, decisions will be taken entirely haphazardly.

The cities of Western Europe are profoundly affected by major global forces, which affect both the competitive advantage of different cities and the location of activities between cities and suburbs. These forces will impinge differentially on the main levels of the urban hierarchy; it is useful to distinguish between global cities, regional cities, older industrial cities and county-level cities.

An integrated science and technology policy is both complex and urgent. We have gradually come to understand that the relationship between science and technology is not neat and linear: it is not a case of first some basic science; thereafter some design and development; and then products, profits and the end to unemployment! A comprehensive science and technology policy is not a matter which is internal to science and technology, it also lies within the domain of several of the social sciences. This article reflects, in some generality, upon the relationship between the social and natural sciences, and examines some of the differences and similarities in methods and models as used by the social and natural sciences.

In spite of the need for harmonisation resulting from the internal market, competition between rules has increased considerably during the last years. Several factors have contributed to this development, in particular the principle of mutual recognition, the new method for harmonisation, the decreasing sensitivity with respect to differences in the costs of production and the principle of subsidiarity. The use of the directive as the privileged instrument for harmonisation is contrary to the principle of subsidiarity at the level of control of Community rules. It is therefore appropriate to substitute framework regulations to directives in order to facilitate the control of implementation by interested individuals and companies.

After World War II, the European semi-periphery—southern, Mediterranean and the eastern one—underwent rapid industrialization and urbanization. During this process. East-Central European socialist countries also replicated the forms—but not the social content and mechanism—of earlier Western European urbanization. Post-socialist transition has introduced important changes into urban processes as follows: (a) growing inequalities; (b) development of transboundary relations and the beginning of city competition across the whole of Europe; (c) independent urban governments; (d) transformation of urban society; and (e) privatization of urban land and housing.

New Technology may have unintended and even negative impacts. This article explores some new approaches in policy analysis of socio-technical networks aimed at improving foresight for technological advances.

The Eurometropolis is a new power, challenging the supranational role of Brussels. The territories of influence of such Eurometropolises extend outside individual nations. In federal systems they may be part of state organization, elsewhere they create networks of competition and co-operation, and have started to develop independent politics.

An attempt is made to describe the global urban situation, stressing important aspects of cross-cultural links and environmental problems for the urban development of sub-Saharan Africa. As a consequence of Agenda 21, passed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (1992), there exists an urgent and growing need to analyse further and assess the research and planning of urban development in the South.

By looking at science as a search process, disciplinary demarcations become secondary, and new combinations—which occur all the time—can be better recognized. The practices of natural science contain social science components (to discipline the world) and humanities components (telling of stories), and the quality of these components can be enhanced. The search perspective unifies science and scholarship; the important differences are not between natural science, social science and humanities, but between ‘grammar’, ‘(hi)story’ and ‘nomology’, three ideal–typical approaches in search processes. Existing scientific/scholarly developments and new combinations can be located on this map. An integrated science policy should create a stimulating environment for new combinations.

This paper highlights the process of selecting a long term research agenda in the environmental-development field. What are the criteria to be used for the understanding of what is important in our phase of history? In order to dwell on this process somewhat from the outside, the entry-point chosen is Columbus' world and challenges 500 years ago. In his time the problem was not environmental issues; however, at a more general level an analysis of the interplay between what is supposed to be known, the ideological connotations, the political ambitions, and the economical and technical capacities, provide interesting parallels to our time.