Per Gunnar Røe

Energy Use for Transportation in 22 Nordic Towns

A multivariate study of 22 Nordic towns indicates that urban form variables have a significant influence on the inhabitants’ average energy use for transportation. A high population density, particularly in the inner and central areas of the town, seems to be beneficial if the aim is to reduce energy use. Towns with a high proportion of blue‐collar workers use more energy for transportation than the average. This may in part be due to the frequent location of such workplaces in outer areas with poor transit facilities. A number of socioeconomic variables, among others income, car ownership and fuel prices, were also investigated. However, the influences on energy use from these variables were lower than the effects of the urban form variables.

Qualitative research on intra-urban travel: an alternative approach

Abstract This paper argues for a qualitative approach to the study of intra-urban travel. A critique of traditional quantitative transport geography will be set forth together with a recognition of the need for alternative perspectives and methods to bring about a new understanding of everyday urban travel experiences. The article also describes an approach whose aim, by means of an abstract-concrete dialectical methodology, is to elicit and reveal subjectively experienced time-space constraints in everyday urban travel, to give those experiences a voice, and to learn more about how people construct and execute their travel routines in different structural settings.

Analysing Place and Place-making: Urbanization in Suburban Oslo

Despite developments within planning theory challenging the ideal of the rational master plan it may be argued that there is still use for the production of knowledge through analysis in planning. However, the cultural complexity of todays planning contexts, and a move towards governance and entrepreneurial policies, makes it difficult to make places, to achieve social welfare and sustainability. Traditionally, the analysis of places has been done by architects and planners focusing on physical form, having an essentialist perspective of place resembling the theory of genius loci. In Norway, the planning authorities refined this methodology in the 1990s. This approach is, however, not in tune with a progressive view of places as multiple and dynamic social constructions, and may be accused of ‘symbolic violence’. If one is to take this view seriously and still be able to make plans, planning must also be based on other types of knowledge. In this article I argue for a socio-cultural approach to reveal social representations and practices that make a place. I use the case of place-making in Sandvika, a suburban ‘minicity’ outside Oslo, as an example of how a constructivist understanding differs from and may supplement an essentialist approach.

The social context and politics of large scale urban architecture: Investigating the design of Barcode, Oslo

The well-known and much investigated rise of urban entrepreneurial policies has fuelled a transformation of urban spaces and landscapes, and has led to changes in the social composition of city centres. This is the case for Oslo, Norway’s capital, where increasingly urban policies are designed to attract transnational companies and those in the creative class. A key strategy to achieve this has been to transform the city’s waterfront through spectacular architecture and urban design, as has taken place in other European cities. Transnational and local architects have been commissioned to design the Barcode, one of the most striking waterfront projects. This article investigates the role of architecture and architects in this process, because architects can be seen as influential generators of urban spaces and agents for social change, and because there is remarkably little published empirical research on this specific role of architects. It is argued that although there was an overall planning goal that the projects along the waterfront of Oslo should contribute to social sustainability, with the implication that planners and architects possessed information about the local urban context and used this knowledge, in practice this was not the case. It is demonstrated that the architects paid little attention to the social, cultural and economic contexts in their design process. Rather, the architects emphasized the creation of an exciting urban space and, in particular, designed spectacular architecture that would contribute to the merits of the firms involved. It is further argued that because of this the Barcode project will not contribute to the making of a just city.

Governance and change on the urban fringe – special issue of Urban Research & Practice

There is increasing interest in sociospatial and sociocultural developments on the fringes of cities. Some studies focus on the emergence of polycentric metropolitan areas and others on changes in existing suburbs and the development of new suburbs and exurbs. At the same time, development and regeneration of areas on the urban fringes increasingly take place in a context marked by deregulation, privatization, and network-like modes of coordination. It is an important challenge to explore the spatial, political, social, and cultural processes and implications of the changes taking place. The workshop Governance and Change at the Urban Fringe explored various aspects of these developments, and the results are published in this special issue.

«Genialt planlagt?» Drabantbyen som hjem i spennet mellom boligfaglige idealer og levde landskap

Genialt planlagt? Drabantbyen som hjem i spennet mellom boligfaglige idealer og levde landskap