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| 2. |
- Danenberg, Rosa
(författare)
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Main streets as resilient public spaces : Zooming in on ground floors in Stockholm
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This research focuses on how main streets and ground floors can be adaptable and resilient public spaces. Main streets are vital components of the urban fabric of cities worldwide, serving dual roles as both links and places. They have played a major role in Western cities since the turn of the twentieth century; however, their significance as places has diminished over the years due to modernist planning. Contemporary planning approaches have struggled to address the link and place dimensions simultaneously (von Schönfeld and Bertolini 2017; Carmona, de Magalhães, and Hammond 2008a; Carmona et al. 2003). Main streets are pivotal nodes for socializing, commerce, and mobility. Their character is largely determined by the spatial features and functions of continuous ground-floor spaces, and the small businesses inhabiting those who create comfortable and sociable sidewalks (Jacobs 1961; Mehta 2011). Yet, spatial, social, and economic shifts driven by processes of privatization, globalization, and digitalization have transformed the main street character. Despite generally being considered to be adaptable and resilient places, main streets require dedicated planning, design, and management support in order to contribute cities being sustainable (Kickert and Talen 2022; Carmona 2015; Jones, Roberts, and Morris 2007; Zukin, Kasinitz, and Chen 2016). The research presented in this thesis aimed to provide an in-depth examination of how ground floors change from a socio-spatial perspective and how they are adaptable and resilient, in order to understand how planning, design, and management can support the future existence of main streets. The question that guided the research presented in this thesis was: What role do ground floors play in the creation of adaptable and resilient main streets, and how can planning, design, and management support this process?The research presented in this thesis reveals a reciprocal relationship between the spatial features of main streets and their ground floors and socio-economic dynamics, which are fundamental components of adaptable and resilient public spaces. To study main streets, ground-floor change was examined using Google Street View, focusing on three main streets in Stockholm between 2009 and 2018. This analysis showed a substantial transformation, with almost half of the ground floors changing during the studied period. This supports the idea that main streets are dynamic ecosystems capable of adapting to shifting socio-economic conditions, indicating their resilience. However, it also became apparent that small, local, and independent businesses accounted for two thirds of the ground floors in 2009 but just ten years later they occupied closer to half of the ground-floor spaces, and that chain stores appeared in the places of the independent stories that disappeared. The store categories that increased in number included ‘food and drink services’ and ‘personal beauty services’, while the ‘retail product store’ category showed a decrease. When investigating the spatial aspect of this transformation, it became evident that small ground-floor spaces are where change occurs. Small spaces undergo more frequent changes and are more adaptable to new functions. Interestingly, chain stores have downscaled to fit into these small spaces, intensifying competition with small, local, and independent businesses that are already in vulnerable positions. The research also investigated the privatization of property ownership in Stockholm and the impact of the Pandemic on ground-floor changes. Between 1990 and 2010, privatization occurred in the form of large-scale tenure conversions to cooperative housing associations (CHAs), especially in already-attractive inner-city areas of Stockholm (Andersson and Magnusson Turner 2014; Blomé 2012; Magnusson 2005). A fourth street was studied alongside the first three, and property data from Datscha was added to the database. It was found that CHAs emerged as the dominant type of property owner on the four main streets, such that almost half of ground-floor tenants were renting from CHAs in 2018. Research indicates that the large-scale conversion to CHAs has sped up and reinforced the gentrification process (Hedin et al. 2012; Andersson and Magnusson Turner 2014; Magnusson Turner and Andersson 2008; Magnusson 2005; Blomé 2012), and that in the later stages of gentrification, retail gentrification caters to the lifestyles and consumer preferences of new and affluent residents (Mermet 2017; Sakızlıoğlu and Lees 2020; Zukin 201). Retail gentrification involves new retail capitalizing on the value of storefronts as part of a process that leads to the closure of small, local, and independent retailers, who are integral to the vitality of main streets. Employing Kosta’s retail gentrification index and Zukin et al.’s (2009) retail-capital categorization, this research infers that patterns of retail gentrification are evident on Stockholm’s main streets, as demonstrated by the increasing prevalence of the ‘food and drink services’ category and chain stores. Further examination of the property owners responsible for these changes reveals an increase in retail gentrification under CHAs. The shift towards privatization via CHAs has enabled residents to serve as board members who oversee ground-floor tenancy management. This unique aspect of CHAs allows residents to be involved in their immediate living environment. The Pandemic shed light on how this plays out in practice, as it posed various challenges for small-business owners. One of these challenges was the reluctance of CHAs to apply for and pay half of government-subsidized rent reductions on behalf of their tenants, which were intended to mitigate the economic impact of the Pandemic and social-distancing practices. This reluctance stemmed from what the small-business owners perceived to be short-term economic considerations. This approach seemed to prioritize the allure of new retail capital over the preservation of small, local, and independent retailers who had contributed to neighborhoods’ unique characters. Retail planning and public-space management approaches to main streets and ground floors shed light on the need for curation. The research presented in this thesis suggests that the responsibility for main streets and ground floors as adaptable and resilient public spaces should be borne by polycentric governance structures where public and private interests can be balanced.
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| 3. |
- Gabauer, Angelika, et al.
(författare)
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Care and the City : Encounters with Urban Studies
- 2021
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Care and the City is a cross-disciplinary collection of chapters examining urban social spaces, in which caring and uncaring practices intersect and shape people’s everyday lives. While asking how care and uncare are embedded in the urban condition, the book focuses on inequalities in caring relations and the ways they are acknowledged, reproduced, and overcome in various spaces, discourses, and practices. This book provides a pathway for urban scholars to start engaging with approaches to conceptualize care in the city through a critical-reflexive analysis of processes of urbanization. It pursues a systematic integration of empirical, methodological, theoretical, and ethical approaches to care in urban studies, while overcoming a crisis-centered reading of care and the related ambivalences in care debates, practices, and spaces. These strands are elaborated via a conceptual framework of care and situated within broader theoretical debates on cities, urbanization, and urban development with detailed case studies from Europe, the Americas, and Asia. By establishing links to various fields of knowledge, this book seeks to systematically introduce debates on care to the interconnecting fields of urban studies, planning theory, and related disciplines for the first time.
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| 5. |
- Jing, Jing
(författare)
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See and Be Seen : An Inquiry into the Role of Public Space in Combating Loneliness
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Loneliness in cities has been an issue of great concern in public discourse, particularly during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The detrimental impact of loneliness on health and well-being is well documented and has recently become a rising priority for governments worldwide. Recent literature on the impact of the built environment on loneliness has primarily focused on aspects related to neighborhood and mobility. This thesis makes a novel contribution to the understanding of how to mitigate loneliness in cities by focusing on public space. Urban design and planning play a role in shaping inclusive and accessible public spaces, which promote social interactions in various forms needed to tackle loneliness.This thesis aims to inform how urban design and planning strategies can potentially impact levels of loneliness experienced in cities. It presents five articles that provide new insights, methods and theoretical frameworks for urban design and planning to tackle loneliness. The cover essay synthesizes key learnings, potential applications of findings, and next steps to advance the research agenda to address urban loneliness.Case studies at the neighborhood and city levels were performed to explore both direct and indirect linkages between loneliness and public space. The empirical work carried out in the City of Stockholm, Vienna, and Zurich underscores the spatial dimension of care practice in the everyday life of older adults. Several key common findings have emerged across the case studies. First, public space is an environmental resource that holds the potential to mitigate loneliness in all settings, but its management must be aligned with the local specificness and cultural context. This understanding also suggests that reduced access to desired public spaces may contribute to heightened loneliness. Second, the design, management, and use of public space affect the objective quality of public space and influence its perceived quality. Planning must therefore consider the complexity of how people perceive public space, including their responses to the physical, action, and cognitive facets of place. Third, this study reveals some useful key constructs, such as nature, walking, physical activities, seeing/meeting people, commercial, and ambivalence, which are the underlying components associated with place that can be relevant to the desirability of spending time in a place for those experiencing loneliness.The Stockholm case studies highlight that easily accessible local third places can support feelings of independence and safety, and facilitate social and physical activities for community building (meaningful social connection). As such, these are found to be positive resources for combating loneliness among older adults. Familiarity, and related constructs, such as homeness and neighborhood attachment, are also significant for both young and older adults when they consider places to go during times of feeling lonely. Urban design and planning can help transform neighborhood streetscapes to serve as social infrastructure, delivering higher social and well-being values for all.Collectively, these findings offer nuanced insights to improve the understanding of loneliness from an environmental approach. Urban policymaking, investment, design, planning, and development should consider public space as a promising pathway to combat loneliness. Place-based intervention strategies focused on enabling thriving public spaces will be critical for urban areas to reduce loneliness worldwide.
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| 6. |
- Jonsson, Anna-Paula, et al.
(författare)
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New urban developments in a heritage area. A case study of Skeppsholmsviken 6 in Stockholm, Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: A Research Agenda for Urban Tourism. - : Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.. ; , s. 143-175
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A vibrant visitor industry can be a useful indicator of good urban environments. People choose to visit a destination because there is something to see there; there is something worth experiencing. It is well-known that heritage spaces score high on lists of what people enjoy and look for when travelling. Stockholm is no different from other cities in this regard. Some of the most visited destinations in the capital include Gamla Stan (the Old Town) and Djurg√•rden (the Royal National City Park). Both places are the result of hundreds of years of history, careful development and many generations of residents placing their “footprints” on the social milieu of the place; such places cannot easily be replaced or “fast-tracked” into being. In other words, there is an imperative to manage new urban developments in such places carefully, especially since they are often the site of conflicting interests. To better understand the challenges this imperative might place on planning practices, this case study follows the planning process of a plot located on Djurg√•rden in Stockholm. The case study will observe that conflicting interests and values between residents, urban heritage professionals and private corporate actors - with regards to how such a plot should be allowed to develop - highlight the complicated nature of planning in heritage areas.
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| 7. |
- Jonsson, Anna-Paula, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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New urban developments in heritage areas : Evidence for making tourism part of urban planning
- 2022. - 1
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Ingår i: A Research agenda for Urban Tourism. - Northhampton, MA, USA : Edward Elgar Publishing.
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A vibrant visitor industry can be a useful indicator of good urban environments. People choose to visit a destination because there is something to see there; there is something worth experiencing. Among popular destinations spaces of heritage score high on lists of what people enjoy and look for when travelling. Stockholm is no different from other cities in this regard. Some of the most visited destinations in the capital include Gamla Stan (Old Town) and Djurgården (Royal National City Park). Both places are the result of hundreds of years of history, careful development and many generations of residents placing their ‘foot prints’ on the social milieu of the place. Such places cannot easily be replaced or ‘fast-tracked’ into being. In other words, there is an imperative to manage new urban developments in such places carefully. Ironically, the popularity of such places can make this all the more difficult. Attractive places can end up ‘cursed’ by their own ‘attractiveness’, that turns them into battle grounds for conflicting interests between, for example, residents, developers and visitor industry actors. To better understand the challenges this might place on planning practices, this case study follows the planning process of a plot located on Djurgården in Stockholm. The case study will observe that conflicting interests and values between residents, urban heritage professionals, and private corporate actors - with regards to how such a plot should be allowed to develop - highlight the complicated nature of planning in heritage areas.
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| 8. |
- Karimnia, Elahe, et al.
(författare)
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Appropriation of Public Space : A dialectical approach in designing publicness
- 2020
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Ingår i: Companion to Public Space. - New York : Routledge, 2020. : Routledge.
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Publicness is a crucial concept in urban design practice that provides a critical though constructive backdrop to approaches and strategies that go beyond simply designing ‘public space.’ Planning and building public spaces are among the objectives of urban design projects, while the publicness of spaces is shaped as the aftermath of larger development strategies. Over the last decade, we have witnessed the socio-cultural potential of public spaces through tremendous efforts by activists, practitioners as well as scholars. Scholarly research (mainly in the social sciences) has addressed the multidimensionality and complexity of the publicness of urban spaces, questioning the production of pseudo-public places as an urban design outcome. Addressing the question ‘Whose public space?’ casts a negative light on urban design practice for its contribution to systematic exclusions from public spaces (Madanipour 1995, 2010). The publicness of urban spaces is subject to change through the everyday spatial practices that reflect the importance of expanding the notion of ‘design’ as a process, and embracing the multiplicity of spaces, actors/actions as well as unintended consequences as a driving force in the design process.In this chapter, we intend to build a deeper understanding of the challenges embedded in spatial production process, and in the required shift in urban design practice when designing publicness. We argue that producing publicness is not a linear process of applying experts’ knowledge and approaches conceived in a positivist mode. Publicness is in fact not an outcome of any specific stage of the urban design process; rather, publicness emerges out of a series of purposeful strategies and actions enabled or delimited by public spaces in everyday practice.The potentials of public space, as infrastructure for social activities, cultural production, and political expression, have been highlighted, specifically over the last decade, in various academic conferences, educational programs, and even policy-making platforms. However, we still lack multi-disciplinary knowledge of these potentials in and for practice (Carmona 2014). A dialectical approach suggests that urban design knowledge can evolve through practice: applying the knowledges of everyday practices, such as the way public space is appropriated, lets urban designers redefine the problems encountered in both practice and design (Inam 2011). Appropriations reveal that public space is a medium and a catalyst where various actors, together with their aspirations, needs, and conflicts, participate in producing publicness.This chapter concerns the complex processes of producing publicness. The first argument of this chapter concerns how publicness as an abstract ‘intention’ is translated through urban development processes. We discuss the limitations of spatial production, which is usually driven by political and economic intentions and territorial strategies and is known as the intention–outcome gap in urban design. Urban design is often subject to criticism for the gap (Foroughmand Araabi 2017; 2018) arising from the antithesis between a substantive–descriptive understanding of publicness and a normative–prescriptive design of public spaces, with urban design traditionally considered responsible for the latter (Moudon 1992). This argument calls for a deeper understanding of the contribution of practice to capital creation (i.e. neoliberal practices of urban design).The second argument highlights the appropriations by which space becomes public in action, and the sets of efforts by those whose regular presence, togetherness, and encounters contest the intended publicness. Appropriation is discussed in light of Lefebvre’s concept of ‘trial by space,’ to address everyone’s right and intention to practice their being in space, resulting in levels of territorial adaptation and domination that accordingly transform the publicness of space. The third argument of this chapter treats the implications of appropriations as creative conflicts that can identify and challenge the assumptions of urban design practice. Such an approach recommends a multi-scale and consequence-based framework for designing not only space but also the conditions under which publicness emerges. This represents a shift towards creative urban practices going beyond publicness as intention and public space as outcome.
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| 9. |
- Karlsson, Charlie, 1945-, et al.
(författare)
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Innovative transformations of global city regions in the post-urban world
- 2020
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Ingår i: Urban empires: Cities as global rulers in the new urban world. Glaeser, E., Kourtit, K., Nijkamp, P. (red.). - New York City : Taylor & Francis. - 9780429892363 - 9781138601703 ; , s. 257-274, s. 257-274
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 10. |
- Kickert, Conrad, et al.
(författare)
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Spatial dynamics of long-term urban retail decline in three transatlantic cities
- 2020
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Ingår i: Cities. - : Elsevier BV. - 0264-2751 .- 1873-6084. ; 107
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper studies the effects of the centrality, connectivity and agglomeration of retail establishments on their long-term viability in three cities in the United States, United Kingdom and The Netherlands. As retail is declining in all three markets, there is a dearth of knowledge on the spatial patterns of this decline. This obstructs the substantiation of development decisions and public policy on urban retail retention and growth. Without knowing where stores are most at risk of closing, where can we decide to invest or divest? This paper uses a self-built dataset of store locations and store closures over the span of more than a century in the urban cores of Detroit, Michigan; Birmingham, England; and The Hague, The Netherlands. While taking different paths, all three cities have experienced significant retail decline over the past century. The probability of store closure over time is compared to the metric distance of stores to the retail center of gravity (centrality), store location along well-used streets as measured by their Choice value (connectivity), and the number of surrounding stores (agglomeration). These three comparisons are statistically analyzed using simple line regression, panel regression, and spatial autoregressive probit models. Across these models, store closure is most significantly affected by agglomeration, then by centrality, followed by connectivity. The significance of all three measures is strongest in The Hague, followed by Birmingham and Detroit – two cities that experienced large-scale urban renewal and socio-economic decline.
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| 11. |
- Mehaffy, Michael W., et al.
(författare)
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Introduction : Toward a “Post‐Alexandrian” Agenda
- 2023
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Ingår i: Urban Planning. - : Cogitatio. - 2183-7635. ; 8:3, s. 148-152
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Christopher Alexander, who died in March 2022, was undeniably one of the most influential, if sometimes controversial, urban thinkers of the last half‐century. From Notes on the Synthesis of Form, his first book and Harvard PhD thesis, to the landmark “A City is Not a Tree,” to the classic best‐sellers A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building, to his more difficult and controversial magnum opus, The Nature of Order, Alexander has left a body of work whose breadth and depth is only now coming into view. Yet Alexander’s legacy is also the subject of intense debate and critique within the planning and design fields. This introduction provides an overview of the thematic issue of Urban Planning titled “Assessing the Complex Contributions of Christopher Alexander.” Its purpose is to provide greater clarity on where Alexander’s contribu-tion is substantial, and where there are documented gaps and remaining challenges. Most importantly, the thematic issue aims to identify fruitful avenues for further research and development, taking forward some of the more promising but undeveloped insights of this seminal 20th‐century thinker.
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| 12. |
- Mehaffy, Michael W., et al.
(författare)
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New Urbanism in the New Urban Agenda : Threads of an Unfinished Reformation
- 2020
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Ingår i: Urban Planning. - : COGITATIO PRESS. - 2183-7635. ; 5:4, s. 441-452
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present evidence that New Urbanism, defined as a set of normative urban characteristics codified in the 1996 Charter of the New Urbanism, reached a seminal moment-in mission if not in name-with the 2016 New Urban Agenda, a landmark document adopted by acclamation by all 193 member states of the United Nations. We compare the two documents and find key parallels between them (including mix of uses, walkable multi-modal streets, buildings defining public space, mix of building ages and heritage patterns, co-production of the city by the citizens, and understanding of the city as an evolutionary self-organizing structure). Both documents also reveal striking contrasts with the highly influential 20th century Athens Charter, from 1933, developed by the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. Yet, both newer documents also still face formidable barriers to implementation, and, as we argue, each faces similar challenges in formulating effective alternatives to business as usual. We trace this history up to the present day, and the necessary requirements for what we conclude is an `unfinished reformation' ahead.
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