Kaisa Schmidt-Thomé

Urban happiness: context-sensitive study of the social sustainability of urban settings

Previous studies have reported multifaceted, controversial social outcomes of densely built urban settings. Social sustainability of urban environments have rarely been studied in a context-sensitive manner, identifying the specific ways urban structural characteristics contribute to the behavioural, experiential and well-being outcomes. In this study, an online public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) methodology allowed the place-based study of urban and suburban contexts in the metropolitan region of Helsinki, Finland. Respondents (N = 3119) located their meaningful places and reported the experiential and well-being outcomes. GIS-based measures of urban structures were calculated within a 500m buffer around their homes. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the contextual variation and the mediational role accessibility and perceived environmental quality play in linking urban structural characteristics with well-being outcomes. Our findings indicated that although increasing urban density was associated with shorter distances to everyday services in both urban and suburban settings, the experiential and well-being outcomes varied. In the urban context, easy access to services contributed to higher perceived environmental quality and positive well-being outcomes, whereas in the suburban setting, the closeness of services decreased the experiential and well-being outcomes. Perceived environmental quality was strongly associated with well-being in both contexts. We concluded that densely built urban neighborhoods can also support social sustainability, but the processes vary between suburban and urban settings. A challenge remains for urban planners on how to improve accessibility and related positive experiential outcomes in suburban contexts.

The prospects for urban densification: a place-based study

Study of the environmental outcomes of urban densification is a highly context-dependent task. Our study shows that collecting and processing place-based survey data by means of the softGIS method is clearly helpful here. With the map-based internet questionnaire each response remains connected to both the physical environment and the everyday life of the respondent. In our study of the Kuninkaankolmio area (located in the Helsinki metropolitan region) the survey data were combined with urban density variables calculated from register-based data on the existing built environment. The regression analysis indicated that the participants in the survey preferred the same density factors for their future residence as they enjoyed in their current neighbourhood. In the second analysis we related the densities of planned infill developments with the interest respondents had shown in these projects. The results show that new and even quite dense infill developments have been found to be rather attractive, with them often being viewed as interesting supplements to the current urban texture. These findings contribute to the ongoing scientific discussion on the feasibility of densification measures and encourage the Kuninkaankolmio planners to proceed, albeit carefully, with the planned infill developments.

Interplay of power and learning in planning processes: A dynamic view

We offer a novel conceptualisation of power relations in planning by bringing together Steven Lukes’ and Gregory Bateson’s frames. By studying ‘double-binds’, we can explain both the mechanisms of implicit ‘power over’ and the sources of reflective learning to transcend them and regain ‘power to’. We use the conflict over the Stuttgart railway station to illustrate how the interplay of power and learning suits the analysis of power dynamics in planning processes. In this contentious case, the opposition against the ‘Stuttgart 21’ learnt to frame and resist the large-scale traffic infrastructure and urban renewal project, initiated by the German railway company Deutsche Bahn. The power of the opposition seems to have coincided with the shifts between the three dimensions of power (Lukes), and these shifts become well understood as three cross-cutting levels of learning (Bateson).

Duisburg as Standort and Tatort Urban Renewal and Structural Change Meet Inspector Schimanski

Duisburg typifies those cities once dependent on heavy industry but now undergoing a prolonged period of structural change. A number of large-scale urban redevelopment projects have already been launched with a view to fostering this change and to rebranding Duisburg as a postindustrial location (“Standort”). Light is shed on this planning process by showing Duisburg as a crime scene (“Tatort”) and thereby depicting the city as the home of fictional police inspector, Horst Schimanski. Since the introductory TV episode was first aired, in 1981, the character has had a significant impact on the city’s public image. Our parallel study of branding efforts and filmmaking shows how the selected backdrops and the social conscience of the fictional hero problematize both the speed and the course of structural change. The public debate surrounding Schimanski is indicative of the rather one-dimensional nature of urban development efforts in Duisburg.