Finding the pulse of the welfare landscape: reframing green space provision in modernist planning

Contemporary planning for urban densification permits the exploitation of the spacious green areas developed for recreation during the welfare planning of the 1960s-70s. Historical studies of welfare planning are needed to better understand the potential values under threat. Answering Colin McFarlane's call for relational studies of density, this paper offers a complementary examination of the relational geography of green space provision in the 1970s, to reveal what the development of the compact city both silences and (literally) replaces. This relational approach departs from the flat ontology of Actor-network theory. The study captures how ideals of recreation, nature, welfare, planning and the rhythms of life assembled into a geography for recreation in the early 1970s, and how this topology crumbles a decade later. While the green spaces of the 1970s linger on today, their reinterpretation as green structure in the 1980s and 1990s partly veils their former role and potential. The paper interprets the legacy of welfare planning, and provides a base for further examination of the geography of green space provision

Decentring landscape: rethinking landscape analysis with a relational ontology

Landscape theory has frequently been used as a base for scrutinising landscape characterisation and landscape analysis. However, this paper argues that if we aim to understand action-oriented methods for landscape analysis, then landscape needs to be decentred in favour of studies of the enactment of the landscape-project interplay. Relational ontology offers a fruitful ground for such examinations. Following a conceptual discussion, the paper draws on an in-depth interview with a senior landscape architect on his practise. The conversation captures how a complex set of theories on landscape, planning, methodology etc. is informing his methodological approach. Second, the interview shows how he centres the unfolding of relations through which the project and landscape can be understood, to identify what matters for the siting of the project. While this methodology remains constant, it requires different ways to enact landscape. This calls for further studies of the relational nature of such methodologies

Situating the silence of recreation in transit-oriented development

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a prominent planning model that connects sustainable mobilities with land use. While this interface is crucial for sustainable development, it also requires, we argue, that all typesof mobilities are considered. Therefore, this paper scrutinises how recreation and its mobilities have been studied within academic TOD literature. The review reveals a small number of studies of recreation, and by paying attention to their diverse geographical settings the scattered knowledge becomes even more apparent. Thereafter, to illustrate the consequences and situate our reading, we offer a place-based critique of the TOD planning in a Swedish city. The case captures how policies silence local resourcesfor recreation, not least by misinterpreting the modernist planning legacy. Finally, we argue that integrating recreation in the TOD model is as important as it is challenging: it requires a reconsideration of the urban ideal that TOD relies upon

Revisiting the green geographies of welfare planning: an introduction

The history and legacy of green planning of the welfare era have largely been overlooked within research, or critiqued due to its limited urban qualities and poor design. This omission has left its role in the development of the Welfare society largely unexplored. Therefore, this special issue revisits the green geographies of welfare planning, to reveal its importance as a matter of welfare and as a set of geographies that goes beyond the contemporary norm of the compact city. The revisits take two forms: historical studies to elucidate the original ideas and geographies of the planning, and revisits to sites currently challenged by new urban or planning ideals. This introduction presents the papers, reflects on previous research, and concludes with a few comments on the need for further studies on green planning and the landscape legacy of the welfare era

Negotiating asymmetric borders in an emerging soft region

In contemporary planning, the development of soft regions through inter-municipal collaborations plays an increasingly important role. However, as previous research has shown, local borders and local jurisdiction are likely to remain as part and parcel of the new region. This paper argues the need to consider the geography of such local borders, to reveal asymmetries which could weaken the opportunities for inter-municipal collaboration. Following relational geography, we argue that the municipalities don't necessarily share the same border; if understood as a relational effect, the border plays different roles for each municipality. With this in mind, we offer a case study of how a Swedish local border is being negotiated within planning. The case of Kumla and Hallsberg reveals how one municipality is active in trying to negotiate the border, whereas the other procrastinates around any action which do not lie in their interest. The result is a border haunted by decades of poorly coordinated, even provocative, planning actions. Our study opens up for a discussion on asymmetries and a relational understanding of the geography (and history) of planning, as well as for further studies of the interplay between the renegotiation of the local borders within emerging soft regions

Spelplan för en hållbar utveckling

Rufopoly är ett dialogverktyg som syftar till att underlätta en konstruktiv diskussion om den stadsnära landsbygdens framtid. Under 2014 har vi anpassat ”spelets” frågor och spelplan till svenska förhållanden inom Leader-projektet ”Spelplan för en hållbar utveckling”. Detta faktablad introducerar Rufopoly och ger tips och idéer om hur det kan användas och utvecklas

Recreational mobilities in (and beyond) the compact city

What happens if one takes recreational mobilities as a point of departure for making sense of the compact city? This special issue offers interdisciplinary explorations of how one might approach studies of cities and metropolitan regions in new ways, using recreational mobilities as both lens and focal point. In so doing, the contributions aim to advance recreational mobilities as a critical theme for scholarship and practice. We specifically hope to demonstrate how such an approach is fruitful for grappling with the legacies of rationalism and modernism in spatial planning, with a focus on the contemporary ideal of the 'compact city' as both phenomenon and normative impulse that has come to dominate discourses of urban design and urban planning in recent decades.(1

Negotiating the city during the dark season: a study of recreational running

Seasonality plays an important role in determining how and where everyday activities are conducted. Yet how seasonality shapes recreational mobilities in the city, and how it matters for everyday urban life, remain largely unexplored. Inspired by recent research on the weather as lived, this paper contributes to the understanding of urban recreational mobilities as shaped by runners negotiating the urban environment and its seasonality. Thereby, we also explore a specific way to examine the city. We studied recreational running during the dark season in Sweden, based on diary-interviews with thirty runners, employing practice theory and affordance theory to explore how places, practices, and affordances characterize running during this season. Our findings reveal ways in which runners engage in different running practices in different settings, with the forest, pavement, and hills as our examples, and with lights as an additional analytical lens. We show how runners, in their strategies for dealing with the dark season in a city, tend to avoid some characteristics of the city (traffic, noise) while taking advantage of others (street illumination, road, and pavement maintenance). Thus, running practices are partly formed by urban planning and maintenance